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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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THE VISIBLE 



AND 



INVISIBLE WORLDS. 



17 



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BY 

Rev. Jf W. VAHEY, 




MII^WAUKEE, WIS. 

1890. 






COPYRIGHT, 1890, J. W. VAHKY. 



, H. YEWDALE & SONS CO. PRINTERS AND BINDERS, MILWAUKEE 



PREFACE. 



The following work has been written through 
a desire of showing, by philosophical argument, 
the harmony that exists between true science and 
divine revelation. As both are from God, the 
thought acted upon my mind that there could be 
no antagonism betw^een them, and, in the course 
of this work, it will be seen that there is none. 
I was further induced to write it from the force of 
negative judgments I more than once expressed in 
controversies against conclusions deduced from 
speculation, which affirmed that, not only the 
bodies which form our solar system, but those 
that compose star systems, are inhabited by 
human beings. I was still further induced to 
write it, in order to furnish some of my readers 
with philosophical arguments through which they 
could refute the silly systems of agnostics, evolu- 
tionists, positivists, atheists, pantheists, material- 
ists, communists, socialists and anarchists, which 
deny the existence of God, the omnipotent Aat 
that created the universe, complex map, the ani- 
mal and vegetable kingdoms. After writing a few 
pages, I determined to give up the undertaking, 
owing to the difficult nature of the subjects I had 



4 Preface. 

to treat, but through perseverance I succeeded in 
my project. 

As far as I am able to judge, my book is in har- 
mony with true science and the teaching of the 
Church. In the examination of questions, I am 
certain that the conclusions I deduced are in con- 
formity with scientific truths and the dogmas of 
revealed religion. Should the Church pronounce 
sentence against any opinion I have advanced, I 
will consider the same as erroneous, 

J. W. VAHEY. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction 

CHAPTER I. . 
The Four First Days of Creation — Were they Solar Days? . 15 

CHAPTER II. 

Our Solar System — The Bodies that Compose it — Their 
Motion — Gravitation — Light — The Velocity of its 
Motion — Are the Bodies that Compose our Solar Sys- 
tem Inhabited ? 57 

CHAPTER III. 

The Systems of Atheists, Pantheists, Agnostics, Positivists, 

Freethinkers, Evolutionists, Socialists and Communists 99 

CHAPTER IV. 

Was the First Man a Material Growth? — Did he Institute 
Society? — Did it Develop Itself Proportional to His 
Development? — Did God Institute Society? — Paternal 
Society — The Theocracy — Its Rejection — Political 
Society — Its Source — Political Power — Its Source — The 
Divine Right of Kings 115 

CHAPTER V. 

Capital and Labor — The Primary Source of Capital-Labor 
a Result of Adam's Transgression — The Rich and the 
Deserving Poor — Monopolies and Trusts — Their Injus- 
tice — ^The Force of Money in our Elections — Avarice — 
Its Universality in the Commercial World — Its Promo- 
tion of Crime — Its Tendency to Infidelity — Is there 
Supernatural Light to Illumine the World of Man? — 
Whence the Source of this Light? 125 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Sidereal Heavens — The Asteroids — Stars of the First 
Magnitude — Their Distance from Each Other— Their 
Area of Attraction — Their Motion — Comets — Their 
Source — Their Chemistry — Star Showers — Their Source 
and Chemistry 137 



6 Contents, 

CHAPTKR VII. Page, 

The Creation of Angels — Their Probation and Fall — Disem- 
bodied Spirits — Purgatory — Is it a Place or a State? — 
Is it In the Earth or On it? 149 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Hell — What Called it into Existence? — Is it a Place or a 
State of Punishment? — Is it Located in the Nucleus of 
our Planet? — Is its Fire Physical? — Can Material Fire 
Act upon a Disembodied Spirit? — The Darkness of 
Hell— What has Induced this?— The Pains of Hell— 
Their Eternal Duration— Could H:ell be Outside Stellar 
Space? — Evil Spirits on Earth— Temptation 169 

CHAPTER IX. 

God — His Attributes — Heaven — Its Glory — The Angels— 

Their Office— The Saints— Their Office 201 

CHAPTER X. 

The Unity of the Visible with the Two Invisible Worlds— 
The Church Militant — Her Happiness in Her Children 
and in the Possession of the Blessed Sacrament — The 
Manifestation of our Lord's Humanity in the Blessed 
Sacrament — The Dead World — Mediation — Knowledge 
Imparted to the Human Mind through External 
Mediums — Do Human Beings Generate the Compon- 
ents of their Offsprings? — The Human Soul — The Ani- 
mal Soul — Neither Naturalism nor the World can 
Satisfy the Cravings of the Human Heart 214 

CHAPTER XI. 
Religion — Its Definition — Its Divine Origin — Its Unity — 
Is it in the Power of Man to Found True Religion? — 
Can Man Improve the Religion Founded by the 
Redeemer?— Can Men Preach Authoritatively without 
Being Sent by Apostolic Authority? — False Charges 
Preferred against the Catholic Church and her Visible 
Head, Refuted 234 

C0NCI.USION 271 



INTRODUCTION. 



The existence of God and the invisible worlds ; 
the creation of matter and its formation into vast, 
ponderous bodies ; the creation of spiritual entities 
and their fall ; the creation of primal man and his 
fall ; the establishment of society and true religion 
have been, and still are to many minds, problems 
difficult of solution. The darkness that envelops 
those questions, is not real, it is only apparent, 
and results from the absence of faith, which is 
light to the soul, and from the assignment of a 
province to finite reason that is above its powers 
of research. 

Although reason is a divine gift, by the light of 
which, through the relation of cause and effect, 
the existence of a necessary Being can be appre- 
hended, yet it cannot act on the supernatural, so 
as to be the sole standard of determining with 
certainty the meaning or value of divine truths. 
When reason aloncy treats the supernatural, its 
conclusions are only opinions which do not induce 
certainty. The only result from its research in this 
respect, is antagonism to faith, which is nothing 
more nor less than rationalism. Faith, from its 
divine source and intrinsic nature, induces the 



8 Introduction. 

mind to accept the principle proposed as true, 
because of the testimony of Eternal Truth — God, 
who cannot deceive. 

Faith illuminates the world of reason as reason 
does that of sense, and, thereby, gives it a wider 
and a higher field of activity. Whenever reason 
usurps the domain of faith, error will result, 
because it assumes an office wholly above its limited 
powers. It follows, therefore, that unless faith 
directs the human mind in the acquisition of 
spiritual knowledge, it will incline towards 
indifferentism, if not towards materialism. 

In the absence of a direct revelation designative 
of the location of a place in the invisible world, 
the mind can examine the partly received theory 
of its location, and should it find that the theory 
is antagonistic to reason, it can reject it without 
being rationalistic or heretical in its conclusions. 
This I want the reader to bear in mind, when he 
examines my reasoning on the assumed location 
of purgatory, hell and the nature of their fires. 
When the mind attempts to reduce divine revela- 
tion to the value and force of limited reason 
or scientific research, then, its deductions are 
rationalistic. 

True science teaches that man is a complex 
being — that is, that he is composed of reason and 
sense, or of spirit and matter, and that his first 
knowledge is acquired through the medium of 
sense. As a proof of this, we have the certainty 
that his infantile or first stage, is that of pure sen- 



Introduction, g 

sation ; his next is that of perception, while his 
third is that of recognition. As these result from 
the force of sense, and not from the action of his 
intellect which is dormant, evolutionists deduce 
the conclusion that soul and instinct are one and 
the same. They say: *'As sensation, perception, 
parental recognition and the expression of mate- 
rial wants, act alike on the infant and on the 
animal, they are results from instinct and sense, 
and therefore, that that which we call soul is only 
instinct, or the principle of animal life.^' 

If agnostics, evolutionists and materialists 
could see the inanity and the vapidity of their 
theories as Christian philosophers do, they would 
not be so ready to deduce their *^ therefores '* from 
shadowy speculation. The fallacy of this conclu- 
sion I shall show in the course of this work. I will 
however, state here, by way of disproving this 
conclusion that instinct does not ascend in the 
scale of expansion, while reason does. The infant's 
recognizable and expressive powers result from its 
sensative and perceptive, ^which are budding into 
the intellectual. In as much the child possesses 
a sentient principle, it is intellectual only propor- 
tioned to its infancy. The recognition of its parents 
and the desire to have its wants supplied, we can- 
not look upon as direct results of the souls opera- 
tion, because in this stage of its potency it is 
incapable of reflex action ; but in proportion as it 
gains strength it developes itself through external 



lO Introduction. 

mediums, and this is the reverse of instinct, which 
has no rational force in potential or latency. 

Through the world of sense the youth sees mat- 
ter, examines its various forms, and his reason, 
which is his fourth stage, gives him the certainty 
that the material v^orld exists. But he further 
reasons. He says to himself: *^ Now through the 
medium of sense I acquired the certitude that 
matter is, and through the light of reason that I 
myself am ; that in as much as I am, I must be an 
effect from a cause, because I could not be my own 
cause. Then, being an effect from a cause, I believe 
this to be self-energizing, ubiquitous, absolute, 
omnipotent and self-existing. This conclusion I 
arrive at from the convictionof my seizsws intitnuSy 
Tvhich gives me the certainty that brute matter 
could not endue me with a quality not intrinsic in 
it.^' As will be seen this conclusion is a result of 
reason illuminated by divine faith which is the fifth 
stage. While reasoning on causation he is led to a 
First Cause, and here he stops, because he cannot 
go outside this Infinite Circle, this Dominant Power. 
Having acquired the certainty that God exists, 
that He is eternal, supreme and omnipotent, he 
finds no difiiculty in accepting the belief that He is 
the Creator of the universe and the human soul. 
If God did not, then, who or what else ? Was it 
nature, or chance or matter ? It will be seen in the 
course of this w^ork that neither of these have crea- 
tive nor formative energy, and hence, that they 



Introduction, ii 

did not and could not create the universe and the 
human soul. 

To acquire a knowledge of the all-energizing 
and all-controlling Deity, of the origin of the uni- 
verse and the human soul, sense, reason and faith 
must work harmoniously on the plane of investi- 
gation. As sense leans on reason, so must reason 
on faith, which is to the soul what light is to the 
eye. It must be admitted that if men be deprived 
of material vision, they cannot see physical objects, 
and thatif they be spiritually blind— that is, if they 
have no faith, they cannot see the supernatural, 
and hence, become atbeoiy (without God) fall back 
on the contingent and endue it with attributes 
that exist inherently in the Self-existing and Infi- 
nite. By thus acting they envelop themselves in 
the forbidding folds of spiritual darkness, which 
they cannot dissipate without the grace of God 
and the light of true faith. 

That this conclusion is true is evident from the 
wild, vapid speculations of Mr. Bryant, a ^ ^scientist 
and a modern leader of thought," who admits of 
nothing outside of self-consciousness, of nothing 
outsideof the world he knows — that is the physical 
world. He states, but fails to prove, that matter 
never existed prior to force ; and that its presumed 
existence is a fiction, or a metaphysical noumenon 
of the middle-age mode of thought. His god is 
World-Energy, whose self-conservation is the eter- 
nal process of creation. These aberrations, with 
many others, will be refuted in this work. 



22 Introduction, 

Reason and sense act on a natural plane, 
faith on a supernatural. Reason imparts to us 
a knowledge of the material ^world, and of our- 
selves. It gives us the certainty that the universe 
and ourselves are contingent entities, and that, 
as such, are results of primary causation. Faith 
gives us a knowledge of God, of our depend- 
ence on Him, and of the supernatural in all its 
various degrees of sublimity, glory and beauty. 

The purpose then, of this work is to account for 
the origin of the visible and invisible worlds; for the 
formation of those bodies that spangle the heavens ; 
for the elimination of light out of chaotic matter ; 
for the three first days of creation ; for the laws 
that govern bodies in space; for the creation of 
angels and their fall; for the creation of man 
and his fall. In connection with these, it will 
treat of our solar and star systems, and dis- 
prove the theory of some scientists v^hich asserts 
that they are inhabited with human beings. It 
will, also, treat of evil, its root, and will examine 
the speculation advanced by some and accepted by 
many that the fire of hell is that physical fire 
which exists in the nucleus of our planet. Besides 
these, it vvill treat of the w^orld of man, of purga- 
tory, of hell, of heaven, of labor and capital, of the 
origin of society, of the civil power, of the divine 
right of kings, of unjust laws, monopolies and the 
public school system. To a mathematical certainty 
it will prove the unity of revealed religion. 



Introduction, 13 

For the benefit of my readers who may not be 
versed in physical and metaphysical science I have 
used language as simple as the subjects would 
admit. I have also done my best to condense, in 
order to place the work within the reach of all. 
Owing to the fact that the company who printed 
my book had neither Greek nor Hebrew type, I 
was forced to put my quotations from these lan- 
guages in Englishi:haracters . As the work is partly 
philosophical it needs no recommendation. Its 
object is its best recommendation. Should any- 
thing be detected in the work not in harmony 
with true science, let the same be attributed to 
my judgment and not to my will, for I have done 
my best to place my work w^ithin the circle of 
truth. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FOUR FIRST DAYS OF CREATION —WERE THEY 
SOLAR DAYS ? 

*^In the beginning God created heaven and 
earth" — that is, produced, formed and submitted 
to order organized worlds and the matter that 
composed them. **And the earth (matter) was 
in anis et vacua, void and empty,'' or as it is 
expressed in Hebrew, tobu and bohu, *'and dark- 
ness was upon the face of the deep ; and the Spirit 
of God moved over the waters."* 

That the term ^^ beginning," is obscure must be 
granted. To assert that it refers to the '' begin- 
ning " of the unbegotten Son of God would not be 
correct, because the Eternal Logos had no begin- 
ning. He always was and will be. Then, to what 
does it refer? In my judgment it refers to the cre- 
ation or production of the matter that entered 
into the formation of our solar and star systems. 
It is inferential, also, that it refers to the creation 

* Gen. i, i. 



l6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

of angels. Some of the holy Fathers held this 
opinion. 

Of the nature of primal matter which entered 
into the formation of the universe, we can form no 
conception, because it did not come into the field 
of sense before it received form. And, even, after 
it w^as impressed with form, we know nothing of 
the nature of its essence. If we trace it to its 
first beginning, we arrive at the conclusion that it 
is a result of Power, and therefore, is distinct from 
God, who has given it existence of its own, which 
it enjoys in time and space. The key to the solu- 
tion of this difiiculty is had from the fact that 
Moses addressed his language to the intellect 
through sense. Primal matter, although a being, 
before it received form, could be apprehended by 
the intellect, but could not be known by the 
senses. 

To accept primal matter as a being without form 
involves a difficulty that is not easy of solution. 
Some philosophers, to evade this, tell us that 
*^ materia in formata'^ was purely potential, and 
that it occupied a plane of nihilism.'' As such is 
hard to conceive, because of its non-existence, it 
must be rejected. It must be rejected, because it is 
non-scientific and intrensically false. If primal 
matter enjoyed only potential existence, it was 
simply nothing, and hence, was not an entity, 
owing to the absence of essence. But this we can- 
not admit, because, by the force of the creative act 
it passed from a possible to an. actual, and there- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 77 

fore, had essence, and therefore, too, was a being. 
Now, as chaotic matter had a quiddity of some- 
kind, it had form of somekind also, not corporeal, 
but an unwrought, cosmical and vaporous one 
according to its position in space. It did not fill 
space before air, fire and water were eliminated 
out of it, elements which played an active part in 
its subsequent solidification, and before bodies 
received determinate forms which placed them in the 
field of sense and submitted them to the guidance 
of laws. 

From the foregoing it w^ill be seen that I do not 
admit that primal matter had material form, but 
cosmical, and hence, as Genesis narrates, it was 
void and empty y that is, it was shapeless, because 
non-compressed. It was a moving mass without 
density, compression, light or defined limits. That 
this is true science attests, for it demonstrates, 
that even now, cosmical vapor floats in the uni- 
verse, and that, in the dim, dark ground of 
immensurable space, bodies are in a formative state 
through the energy of First Power — God, who 
evoked matter from non-being to being. Science 
further attests that matter, as it now exists, is 
chemically reducible to a void or gaseous state, 
viewed under the light of chemistry it is resolvable 
to igneous vapor. A thing may disappear through 
decomposition, but its constituent parts continue 
to exist under other modifications. Not a solitary 
molecule has been lost since creation's dawn. The 
steam that escapes from an engine, the water that 



i8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

is absorbed from our seas, lakes and rivers, float 
on the air, form clouds and retain intact their con- 
stituent elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Science 
still further attests that vapor once floated through 
space; that an ethereal sea, so to speak, which 
insinuates itself into the particles of all material 
bodks, pervades the uttermost chambers of space; 
that this element, v^hich is of a repellent nature, is 
luminiferous, but non-luminous, and therefore, 
that it is as dark as Erebus. It is, consequently, 
as different from light as sound is from the air 
through which it moves. I am aware that some 
scientists accept ether for light, one and the same 
with it, but they are mistaken. In the mythology 
of the ancient Greeks the belief was incorporated 
that they were one and the same, for Hesiod says: 
**From chaos came night, and from night was 
born (egenoto) ether or light. Ether, which is not 
so elastic in a refracting medium, as it is in free 
space, is a medium for the transmission of light, 
as is air for that of sound. From this it will be seen 
that true science is not at varience with the mosaic 
record of creation, which states that ''darkness 
was on the face of the deep.''* The force of the 
term ''deep," we will soon investigate. 

" And God said : "be light made, and light was 
made. And God saw the light that it was good, 
and He divided the light from the darkness ; and 
He called the light day, and the darkness night, 
and there was evening and morning, one day."^ 

* Gen. i, i. 

I. Gen., i, 3, 5. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. ig 

The duration of the epoch, from the creation of 
rudimentary matter to the production of light, is 
beyond mental conception, because enveloped in 
dense darkness. This period may embrace billions 
of millions of years, if indeed, the term year can 
at all be applied to it, since it ^was not a measure 
of tim:. During this epoch, death and silence 
reigned supreme. The dark, primeval, watery 
mass was now aroused from its slumber by the 
elimination of light out of it, which not only gave 
it visibility and outline, but form, also. 

But here a problem presents itself which science 
cannot solve. It is as remote from its grasp as is 
the irresolvable nebulae that exists outside the 
deep, dark vaccuum which forms the apparent 
boundary of our stellary firmament. In fact, it has 
to look upon it in silent wonder. This difficulty 
results from the fact that neither nature nor 
science (art) has yet succeeded in demonstrating 
that light or heat has an existence independent of 
a luminous source, or of a body in a state of com- 
bustion. Light and heat are sensations which 
act on the animal eye and body, and result from 
the sun, from electricity, from vital, mechanical 
and chemical action. The earth also produces 
heat. Now, as none of these were evoked into 
existence when the Eternal Word eliminated light 
out of chaos, we are totally in the dark as to the 
nature and source of this primordial light, which 
constituted the first day. 

One eminent writer, whose works I consulted 



20 The Visible ayid Invisible Worlds, 

on this question, says that Rat lux^ ''be light 
made," was the ''manifestation of God to 
matter.'' Another, that £at lux "^was the crea- 
ation of angels.'' Leaving the reader to accept 
or reject those opinions, I ^11 state, and prove 
hereafter, that the £at lux was the formation of 
luminous bodies in space, which were not indued 
with attractive force or axial motion before the 
fourth day of creation. From the time of their 
formation till the fourth day, they ^t^ere influenced 
by the \arw of inertia or passivity. 

Paradoxical as it may sound on the ears of my 
readers, light intrinsically, that is, in and through 
itself, is invisible. Although material objects are 
manifested to our vision through its vibrations in 
a medium, yet of its nature or essence we know 
nothing. In the world of sense ^sve know that it 
is an effect, and this is about all the knowledge 
we can acquire of this mysterious force. Like the 
essence of matter, it is one of the things that is not 
seen. Light in a supernatural sense, is coeval with 
God, being His garment. " Thou hast put on praise 
and beauty ; and art clothed with light as with a 
garment."^ Light resulting from a luminous 
source can be defined, but light existing as an 
elastic, imponderable fluid, ^which pervades all 
space, as some physicists assert, cannot be 
described, because it does not exist. This lumin- 
ous, ethereal force, Avhich, some philosophers say, 
pervades all space and exists independent of a 

I. Ps. ciii, 2. 



The Visible and I?ivisible Worlds. 21 

luminous source, is only an ens rationis. Outside 
their intellects it has no existence. In space 
ether is only a medium for the transmission of 
light, as said before, as is air for that of sound. 
And here I will refute a theory on sound which 
recently came under my notice. 

Sound, which is only an impression the mind 
receives through the organ of hearing, is said by 
a recent writer* to be a ^^ substance as real as 
matter itself, although it is immaterial,^ ^ How 
sound can be ^^substantial'' and ^ immaterial" at 
the same time, is hard to be conceived. It is still 
harder to conceive it as "one of tlie forces of 
nature,'' but modern science is *^ progressive." 
The crash or roar of the atmosphere, w^hen its 
equilibrium is disturbed by electric force, is nothing 
more than an impulse which emanates from the 
collision of a negative and a positive cloud. So 
soon as the force that effected those clouds ceases 
its action, the noise which resulted from a collapse 
of the air ceases too. Now, after the sound or 
noise ceased, if substantial, to what element did 
it return ? Sound cannot, without torturing com- 
mon senvSe, be classified, as "one of the forces of 
nature, with gravity, magnetism and electricity. 
Sound is only a form of motion produced by force. 
As all substantial entities in the universe are pon- 
derable, and as sound is not, therefore, it is not a 
"substantial entit3^" 

*The Microcosm, Vol. vii., n. 2, p. 26. 



22 The Visible a?7d Invisible IVorlds. 

Before I revert to the phenomena of light and 
electricity, I will state that it is no way to solve 
a difficult question by deducing a conclusion from 
it more obscure than itself. Although I grant that 
light and heat are manifestations of electricity 
under varying conditions and in varying degrees, 
yet I do not grant that electricity is the sole agent 
which supplies light and heat, because in its 
normal state, it supplies neither the one nor the 
other. In its latent state it is as impalpable as it 
is passive, and therefore, does not pervade the 
immensity of space, as an imponderable ocean of 
light ; and therefore, too, it was not the light which 
God created on the first day. A philosopher who 
mentains the theory I am refuting says : ^ * If hydro- 
carbon or alcohol be ignited, it will be found that 
the light v^hich they emit is no part of these 
elements, and that, although the light is diffused 
in all directions, yet, not an atom of the elements 
in a state of flagration is diffused. '^ This does not 
prove that the light eliminated from chaos on the 
first day of creation, has an independent existence. 
It does not even prove that the light emitted by 
the hydro-carbon or alcohol has an independent 
existence. When the source of this light is con- 
sumed, does not its light go out with it ? Then, 
where is its independent existence. The material 
substance of the hydro-carbon and alcohol is 
prevented by the laws of gravity from diffusion in 
all directions. When in a state of combustion, 
their light, which is imponderable, acts through its 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2J 

medium, and this is the extent of the phenomenon. 
In the whole expanse of the universe no being 
enjoys independent existence. Everything in 
nature is secondary, and hence, is an effect either 
immediately or mediately of Primary Causation. 
Dismissing the question for the present; through 
the potency of £at lux, a separation of the cos- 
mical elements was made and light evolved from 
elementary matter. Thenceforth, chaos was no 
longer tobu and bobUy ''void and empty,'' for 
the light eliminated out of it, enveloped it, shone 
upon it and imparted outline to it, form and 
visibility. God pronounced the result of His crea- 
tive act ''good'' and because of its brilliancy, 
He called it "day," a measureless period, or He 
called it day to distinguish it from the dark 
mass out of which it evolved. The word " called " 
was not an articulate sound; it was only an 
expression of the divine will and is used to convey 
the idea that motion was imparted to the light 
that slumbered in inert, chaotic matter. In 
every language spoken by the members of civil- 
ized communities the word "called" denotes an 
introduction into life, or a transition from passiv- 
ity to activit3^ We often say that we were not 
before we were called into life by Almighty Power. 
"My hand also hath founded the earth, and my 
right hand hath measured the heavens; I shall 
call tbem (the heavens and the earth,) and they 
shall stand together."^ Inanimate matter under- 

a Isaiah, xlviii, 13. 



2^p The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

stands what God requires of it, and obeys Him; 
man does not in all cases ! 

^*And there was evening and morning, one 
day/'^ One would naturally ask, why does not 
morning instead of evening usher in this primordial 
day? Because morning expressed a solar day, 
while evening and morning, or darkness and light 
implied a measureless period. The word, ^^day," 
(yom) used by Moses was not a solar day or a 
measure of time. It meant light and the motion 
imparted to it through medium of ether. From 
chaos came forth night, and from sa,ble night 
evolved light. The evening was the darkness of 
chaos, over which the Spirit of God moved, who 
separated light from darkness, and this result of 
the divine Will is called day. As the rude intellects 
of the Hebrews could form no idea of a measureless 
epoch, Moses used the word '^ day,'' which argued 
the existence of light, or he substituted light for 
day. St. Paul used the term, day, in the sense of 
fire, light and illumination.'^ At this creative stage 
of the universe, Moses knew very well that the 
first day was not a phenomenal measure of time. 
That this is true, ^we shall see hereafter. The 
Redeemer used the word in the same sense. ^^I 
must work while it is day, the night cometh when 
no man can work."^ The production of light out 
of the dark, chaotic matter and its reflection on 
the same, is called day, which prefigured our solar 
day and faintly symbolized Uncreated Light. 

a Gen. i, 5. 

d I Corin. iii, 13. 

c John ix, 41. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2j 

Although the Hebrew words, ^Aerefe and boker, 
which express evening and morning, are etymol- 
ogically opposed, yet they not only convey the 
idea of unity and continuity in the series of crea- 
tion, but also, a parting of the cosmical elements 
through the force of light that was eliminated 
from the dark and non-defined mass. They express 
a blending, ere6, which was followed by a gleam, 
or a twilight dawn which resulted from, or was 
evoked from darkness, chosheck, through the 
ejBfectiveness of First Power. The Eternal Word 
commanded the latent, impalpable light that 
existed in slumbering choas, to assume motion, 
and to give visibility to the mass from which it 
came forth. It no sooner obeyed the command 
than it was called '' day." The commencement of 
this first cycle, or day was the creation of matter, 
which, because of its utter darkness, was primeval 
night — that long night which embraced trillions of 
years, or the evening of the first day ushered into 
existence by £at lux. 

If agnostics, materialists and atheists were but 
partially versed in the Hebrew language they 
would not object to Moses for calling the first 
period of creation, a ^^ day,'' because they would 
find that the word did not always express a definite 
period of time. It often, as in this case, designated 
an epoch, regardless of the idea of a solar day. 
That the mosaic day, yom, expressed an indefinite 
period of time, is evident from the words addressed 
by the Almighty to His Eternal Son. *' Thou art 



26 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

tay Son, this day, jom^ I have begotten thee/' ^ 
Now as the Logos was eternally begotten of the 
Father, the day, j^oia, was without beginning, and 
hence was not a measure of time. The prophet 
Amos says: *' Behold the days are coming, saith 
the Lord, and I will send forth a famine into the 
land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, 
but of hearing the word of the Lord. And they 
shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to 
east ; they shall go about seeking the word of the 
Lord, and shall not find it. In that day, yom^ 
shall fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.'' ^ 
Certainly, the day spoken of here did not at all 
mean a solar day, but an indefinite period of time. 
I might, if necessary, mttltiply examples of this 
kind. 

On the first day of creation, there was intense 
darkness, out of which light was eliminated. The 
darkness ^was evening, ghereby and the light was 
morning, boker, one day. The evening and the 
morning could be metaphorically accepted as the 
beginning and the ending of the works of God 
ad extra, or the creation of the universe. 

Some writers, whose works I have examined 
on this question, assert that the evening and 
morning, or the first day of creation, does not 
imply an epoch of time. But as their so-called 
reasoning is petitio principiiy it is valueless. To 
my mind, the evening is the commencement of the 
creative act, the morning is its completion, and 

b Ps. ii, 7. 

c Amos, viii, 11— 12, 



The Visible and Ifivisible Worlds. 27 

both are called one day, an indefinite period, 
during which the Eternal Word was perfecting 
the universe through His own energy and that 
imparted to second causes. I think it is sufficiently 
clear to an ordinary mind, that the evening and 
the morning designated as one day, convey the 
idea of an indefinite period. Certainly in the 
absence of the center of our system which would 
be a measure of time, there is something in this 
first day, very remote from the ordinary concep- 
tion of days, months and years. 

The charge of falsehood, preferred against 
Moses by agnostics for calling this epoch ^^one 
day,^' is entirely groundless, so soon as we accept 
it as an indefinite period. That Moses did not 
consider it a measure of time through a revolu- 
tion of our planet around its center, is evident 
from his subsequent narration of the sun's for- 
mation and suspension in space on the fourth day, 
which was a measure of time. When Moses 
wrote the Book of Genesis, when he described the 
chaotic state of primeval matter, and when he 
said that the incipient act and its termination was 
^'one day,'' he knew the length and the conse- 
quent value of a solar day as well as we do, and 
so did the Isrealites. Of this there can be no 
doubt, for in this opinion Rabbinical writers and 
the Fathers concurred. 

Why did not this question, which infidelity has 
raised, occupy the minds of the Hebrews ? Why 
did they not ask Moses whether it was or was 



28 The Visible and Invisible Worlds* 

not a solar day? Because their minds were 
impressed with the conviction that the first day of 
creation was an indefinite period. That this is 
true their writings attest, which, time and again, 
express the phenomena of creation. They knew 
as Tvell as we do, that the term ^^ evening and 
morning — one day,^' had no determined value, 
and hence, accepted the first day as a measureless 
period. The prophet Micheas, speaking of Beth- 
lehem, as the future birthplace of the God-man, 
said : ^^ And his going forth is from the beginning, 
from the days of eternity, jotn olamy^ 

If Moses stated that the first day of creation 
was a measureless period, and if the writers of the 
Old and New Testament avoided the use of figura- 
tive language, the mysterious grandeur of God's 
revelation to man would disappear, and then the 
world of sense would have nothing to present to 
the world of intellectuality. It follows, therefore, 
that the terms, '* evening and morning '' are 
radical conceptions and physical appearances 
which express the result of Omnipotent Power 
employed in the first epoch of creation. 

The passivity natural to matter is called 
evening, and the act of the Divine Will that dis- 
turbed this repose, is called morning — one day, an 
indefinite period. Every Hebraist, no matter how 
poorly he may be versed in the language, knows 
that its idiom is different from that of any other 
language; that it abounds in metaphors and 

a Mich., V. 2. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 2g 

sensible conceptions which address themselves to 
the intellect for explanation. This, then, being 
true, no one except an infidel will scoff at, and 
attempt to invalidate the Mosaic record of 
creation; no one, except an infidel, will scoff at 
the Word of God, which is light to the human 
mind. 

*^ And God said let there be a firmament in the 
midst of the waters. And God made a firmament, 
and divided the waters that were under the 
firmament from the waters that w^ere above the 
firmament. And it was so. And God called the 
firmament Heaven, and the evening and the 
morning were the second day."^ 

The formation of a firmament out of semi- 
chaotic matter was the next act of the Creator in 
the series of creation. Here it will be seen, for the 
conviction forces itself upon our minds, that God, 
w^ith more than mathematical precision divided 
the matter into distinct and measured quantities 
which entered into the formation of primaries, 
planets and satellites ; of self-luminous and opaque 
bodies, v^hich revolve in space. I am w^ell aware 
that materialistic ^^philosophers'' will deny this, 
and assert that ^* all bodies in space when formed 
by matter acting on matter, were self-luminous; 
that some have cooled, while others are in the act 
of cooling. ' ' For this scrap of materialistic science 
we must be thankful and use it proportioned to 
its inherent truth. We will see in the course of 

a Gen. i, 6, 7, 8. 



JO The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

this work that dead matter did not forni suns, 
planets and sateUites, but that God did. If planets 
and satellites, in their infancy, so to speak, were 
in a molten state, it does not at all follow that 
they were self-luminous. The property of emitting 
light belongs to primaries or suns, and results 
from the fusibility of the various metals which 
exist in their nuclei, which are not known to 
exist in the interior of planets or satellites. The 
truth of this statement is attested by the 
spectroscope and the lava that is ejected by active 
volcanoes. Through the spectroscope we acquire 
the certainty that the sun's photosphere is a 
result of metal in the state of fusion, and through 
the action of volcanoes, ^we acquire the certainty 
that the matter ejected is composed of cinders, 
tufas, vapor, gas and some other materials, none 
of which have been detected in the nucleus of the 
sun, except gas, and therefore, the components of 
self-luminous and opaque bodies are not of the 
same nature. It is true that some bodies in space 
have cooled, and that others are cooling, because 
every material body is doomed to have its form 
changed ; but it is not true that their production 
and formation were the work of chance. Could 
chance or nature, or matter acting on matter, give 
the cosmical vapor a solidity and a spherical 
tendency ? Could they give molecules attractive 
force, and a tendency towards their central mass? 
Could they give bodies in space a peripherical 
form ? Could they give the systems of the complex 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 31 

universe, their homogeneous structure, which 
imparts beauty and sublimity to them? Could 
the3^ fetter the heavenly bodies Vv4th the invisible 
filaments of gravitation, v^hich creates an equi- 
librium throughout space ? No, indeed. 

Astronomy teaches that the planets require from 
their center a mathematical measure of tangential 
force to keep them balanced in their orbits, which 
they could not receive if their orbits v^ere circular. 
If circular, heliocentric attraction would either 
unduly expand, accelerate, or contract their 
motion, so that the balancing beam would not 
be equipoised, and hence the destruction of body 
after body, of system after system, would result. 
Is this the work of dead matter? No, it results 
from the iia,t of God, and yet infidels, through 
their own unspeakable insignificance, tell us that 
there is no God ! 

Then, the vaulted, blue and crystalline dome of 
heaven, set with brilliants and furnished with a 
vast aereal sea, v^hich surges around us, enters our 
lungs and promotes our vitality, was called into 
existence by the fiat of God. It ^was, but accord- 
ing to the teaching of science, the firmament is 
neither a blue and crystalline dome, nor a vaulted 
one, but a vast expanse in which material bodies 
are poised and balanced, to declare the glory of 
their Creator, and to shed their dim light on man, 
w^ho ranks next to the angels in importance. The 
firmament mentioned here, is neither a solid plane 
nor the heaven spoken of in the first verse of 



32 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Genesis. As before remarked, it is an immensura- 
ble expanse represented to our minds through the 
world of sense, for our contemplation. The dome 
of heaven is only apparent, while its blueness is a 
result of the atmosphere which is a sonorous 
medium, as is ether a luminous one. Were it not 
for these media, darkness would envelop our 
planet and sound would not act on our organs of 
hearing. The atmosphere, as its name imports, 
is not spherical. It is an expanse which has no 
defined limits, and is supposed to be unfit for 
animal existence at a height of seven miles. The 
atmosphere is an invisible,^ transparent fluid, 
very elastic, compressible and ponderable. Its 
properties are oxygen, nitrogen and carbonic 
acid. 

Some writers on pneumatics tell us that the 
limit of our atmosphere is 58 miles ; others, that it 
does not ascend in space higher than 40 miles, but 
these opinions I reject on the authority of science, 
which teaches that *^ when two fluid columns are 
in equilibrium with each other, their heights are 
inversely as their specific gravities." Now as the 
specific gravity of mercury is 10464 times that of 
the air vt^hich surrounds us, its height would be 
found by the proportion, to be almost five miles. 
The density of the atmosphere is not at all uniform. 
It decreases in a geometrical ratio, as its altitude 
increases in an arithmetical one. This law is 



a As the blueness of the firmament results from the atmosphere, I 
think we might assert that the atmosphere is visible. The question is of 
little importance. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, jj 

rooted in the decreasing ^weight of superincumbent 
air at increasing altitudes. At a height of 35 
miles air would be a thousand times less dense 
than that at the earth's surface. When a ray of 
light enters the atmosphere it pursues a curvilinear 
path which is concave towards our vision, and 
hence, we do not see the heavenly bodies in their 
true position. We see them only in the tangent 
of the curve of refraction, and therefore, they 
appear nearer to us than they really are. From 
this cause results the apparent dome of heaven. 

The statement has been accepted because 
demonstrated as true, that the atmosphere is the 
common abode of all gases and vapors; that it 
condenses the organic substances of plants, whose 
particles float on it and afterwards enter into the 
animal tissue, through the effectiveness of the sun's 
heat, which warms it and gives it motion ; that it 
is an efiicient force in the disintigration of rocks 
through solar heat ; that it promotes the lives of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; that it is a 
moderator of solar heat and a conductor of water 
from the earth to the heavens, which falls again 
on the earth in fertilizing rain. Moreover, when 
it becomes tempestuous, it prevents by its agita- 
tion, the ocean from becoming stagnant, and it 
frees itself of the pestilential germs it absorbed 
while its equilibrium was undisturbed by varia- 
tions of temperature. From this it will be seen 
that tempests and hurricanes, so much dreaded by 
mortals, are put in motion for their benefit. 



34 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Then, througli the activity of the divine Will, 
the atmosphere evolved from chaotic matter. Yes, 
and its evolution displays the goodness of God, 
w^ho framed the universe by the potency of His 
word that ^^from invisible things, visible things 
might be made/ ^"^ and these for man's benefit. But 
infidelity ignores the Creator of those gifts, and by 
the act deifies brute matter. Hoiv dark, how bliiad 
is human reason, when non-illumined by the 
jeweled blaze of divine faith. 

It ^svas during this epoch, which may have been 
trillions of years, that limestone, oolite, marble 
and chalk vi^ere formed through the secretions of 
moUiisks, crinoids, polyps, zoophytes, numulites 
and rhizopods, marine animals that lived and died 
in succession. It was during this period that 
conglomerate rock, or consolidated gravel, sili- 
ceous sandstone, sand beds and gravel beds v^ere 
formed through secondary causation or natural 
agency. The carbonic acid which existed, and still 
exists in the -water, formed a glutinous substance 
that cemented the components of conglomerate 
rock and the sand that entered into the formation 
of sandstone. It was during this epoch that 
ravines ^were excavated ; that cliflf-limestone v^as 
furrowed; that huge boulders were removed 
from the site they once occupied; that rounded 
pebbles were formed through the force of friction ; 
that mountains and hills were formed. Those 
vast mountain ranges which are to be seen on 

a Hebrews, xi, 3. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, jj* 

all parts of our planet, owe their formation to 
the surging of the water and to subsequent igneous 
action. The subsidence of the earth's crust, or its 
contraction from cooling, contributed largely to 
the formation of mountains, which commenced 
with the Cambrian and ended with the Carbon- 
iferous period. After the waters were gathered 
together in one basin, the ** mountains went up," 
that is, appeared. Ascendunt monteSf descendunt 
campi.^ In another place the Psalmist says : 
^* The deep like a garment is its (the earth's) cloth- 
ing; abot'e the mountains shall thew^aters stand." 

Oh ! what a vast and glorious field of research 
this epoch opens to the human mind. Every crea- 
ture that enjoyed life during this period, v^orked 
for man. Everything framed, formed and fashioned 
through the energy imparted to those marine 
animals, was for man's benefit. Sedimentary 
accumulations, which solidified on the bottom of 
the deep through chemical action, were for his 
benefit too. No language can express, no mind 
can conceive the immensity of God's action, of 
God's love for man. Not until the human soul 
enters into the marvelous glory of heaven, not 
until it feeds its vision on the blissful, dazzling, 
ecstatic light of the Triune Deity will it know all 
that God has done for man. 

*^ And God said : Let the waters that are under 
the heaven be gathered together into one place, 
and let dry land appeair. And it was so done. 

b ciii, 6, 8. 



36 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

And God called the dry land Earth ; and the gath- 
ering together of the waters he called Seas. And 
God saw that it was good/'^ 

Through the divine activity on the second day 
of creation, the semi-chaotic matter was divided 
into two masses above and below the firmament, 
and now, a part of these, so divided, is about to 
undergo condensation. The waters are gathered 
together in one reservoir for the purpose of pro- 
moting international commerce in the future his- 
tory of humanity, and are called seas, ^vvhile the 
compression of the molecules that remained, 
through chemical agency caused aridity, from 
which intense heat resulted, and this dry (arida) 
land, God called the earth. Here we can obtain a 
mere glimpse of the source of the fiery sea that 
existed in the bosom of the earth, and at the 
source of the salt that is found in the sea-water. 
Chlorides, which are elementary substances and 
constituents of salt from their solubility, when 
consolidation commenced, commixed with the 
water and imparted to it its salty element. To 
these, in lapse of ages, ^were added other saline 
ingredients which resulted from volcanic minerals 
containing an appreciable quantity of salt that 
was washed into the sea. But, what of our inland 
seas of fresh water ? If I were to write on the 
glacial period, I would show their origin. How- 
ever, they are of a formation later than that of 
the seas, and for man's benefit, are the special 

c Gen. i, 9, 10. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 3*1 

work of God, either immediately or through 
second causes. 

Thus far in the series of creation we have seen 
that Ught was eliminated out of void, empty 
matter ; that the atmosphere was obtained from 
the liquid, and the solid again, out of the liquid. 
The displacement by division and separation, and 
the motion incident thereto, generated heat, arida^ 
which imparted pulsation to nature's heart for the 
first time. 

The dry land that entered into the earth's 
formation, and into all the other bodies in space 
of the same chemical combinations, is composed 
of seventy primary elements, all of which, except 
three, are solids, and therefore, reducible to a 
metallic basis, and therefore, too, to a state of 
igneous fluidity. If we suppose, then, that this 
was the condition of arida, we can account for 
the heat in the nucleus of our planet. If this 
speculation be true, and it is, through what agency 
did it cool, and ho^w T^as its crust formed? 
Through the cooling influence of oxygen, nitrogen 
and hydrogen, which constitute our air and water, 
and which floated over the fiery mass for trillions 
of years, perhaps. 

Through supernatural causation, during the 
second epoch, or through the formative activity of 
the Diety, we see stupendous, natural effects 
produced. The undefined, immensurable waste of 
waters, over which the Ruah Elohim, the ** Spirit 



^8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

of God moved, "^ gave place to a v^orld gorgeously- 
decorated and marvelously enriched on which man 
^was soon to appear, and which he ^was to possess. 
To matter that ^was tohn and bohuy void and 
empty; solidity, density, volume, form, ponder- 
osity, extension, compressibility, and the force of 
attraction a.nd gravitation were imparted, which 
called into action chemical affinity. Plains and 
mountains appear from the fact that the waters 
were being gathered together in one place, a.nd 
bodies in space are about to commence their ellip- 
tical motion around their respective centers. Oh! 
how sublimely, how harmoniously connected are 
all the links in the chain of material creation. 
How grand are the effects produced during those 
two first epochs of creation by Almighty Power ! 

After the cooling process ended, and after the 
earth was formed, God said: *^ Let the earth bring 
forth green herb, and such as may seed, and the 
fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, w^hich may 
have seed in itself upon the earth. And it was so 
done. And the earth brought forth the green herb, 
and such that yield seed according to its kind, 
and God saw that it was good. And the evening 
and the morning were the third day.''*^ 

To this simple, but sublime record of creation 
agnostics object. Their objection is based on the 
presumed impossibility of the earth's fecundity 
prior to the formation of the sun and its suspen- 

a Gen. i, 2. 

b Ibid, i, 11-13. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds* jp 

sion in space, and hence, that, ^^ owing to the non- 
existence of our season-producing center, the 
statement of Moses is false/' The vapidity of this 
conclusion will be seen from the fact that light and 
heat, w^hich are one and the same, were active dur- 
ing the first two periods of creation, and hence, so 
soon as the earth was solidified, promoted the 
growth of vegetation. If our agnostics were to 
visit the Artie region they ^would find that during 
its long night of Winter cryptogamia, lycopodia, 
lepidodendra, moss, calamites, herbaceous plants 
and shrubs flourish luxuriantly independent of 
solar influence. Besides, there was only a com- 
mencement of vegetable life, an evolution resulting 
from solidification. Arida, or dry, heated matter 
commenced slowly to develop itself through the 
energizing powers imparted to it by its Creator, 
and this incipient, natural activity Moses narrates 
with a simplicity truly sublime. He tells us that 
vegetable life or force, was no sooner imparted to 
the vegetable kingdom than it commenced to act, 
by bringing forth green herbs. 

In the Mosaic account of creation, we must 
not forget that the language he used is very phe- 
nomenal, and hence, that philosophy must yield 
assent to the cosmical truths presented to our 
intellects through the world of sense. Divine 
revelation being superior to science, by a law of 
its nature, is independent of it, but is not its nega- 
tion. As both are from God, they harmonize. 
The non-harmony apparent to the intellects of 



4-0 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

agnostics results from their rejection of God and 
the deification of reason which place them beyond 
the pale or circle of trtithful logic. In the v;rild 
philosophy of Mohammedanism there are less 
absurdities than in that of agnosticism and 
materialism. 

During the third epoch of creation, the crust 
of the earth was formed, which is composed of 
clay, gravel, equeus,igneus and metamorphic rock, 
and various kinds of mineral. It was during this 
period that coal v^as formed through the agency 
of second causes, under the guidance of a First. 

The wisdom of God, His benignity towards 
man, are wonderfully displayed during this epoch, 
through the fecundating energy He imparted to 
nature. He saw that, in lapse of time, the human 
beings He was soon to call into existence, would need 
fuel to promote their material comfort, and hence. 
He eliminated carbonic acid gas out of the atmos- 
phere, which, from its density , gravitated towards 
the earth, solidified, and, in union with other 
ligneous material, formed coalbeds. If this prodi- 
gious mass of carbonic acid gas still floated on 
the air, animal life would be impossible on the 
surface of our planet. The change in the primeval 
atmosphere, which diminished the volume of car- 
bonic acid, and increased that of oxygen, was not 
at all accidental, as agnostics assert. No, it was 
the work of God, who was fitting the earth for 
man to abide on. The atmosphere of the third 
creative period was so heavily loaded with this 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 41 

noxious gas, that hot-blooded animals could not 
breathe it and live, and hence, it was partially 
consumed by the luxuriant vegetation that flur- 
ished during this period, through intense heat 
which resulted from thermal equilibrium. 

As the atmosphere, the ocean, the lakes and the 
rivers, during the existence of this epoch, under- 
went change through thermal force, the cold- 
blooded animals, such as the batrachian, the lizard 
and others, gave place to quickly-respiring 
animals, placental and non-placental. In the air 
birds of lovely plumage, and of enormous size, 
winged their flight, while beasts roamed over hill 
and dale. If, then, man were on the earth's surface, 
nothing ^would meet his vision but steaming soil, 
which produced large trees, calamites, lepidoden- 
drons, ferns and sigilaria, which afforded food and 
shade for creatures of the animal kingdom, and, 
after being decomposed, entered into the formation 
of coal-beds. 

*^And the evening and the morning were the 
third day,"^ an indefinite period. 

*'And God said : Let there be lights made in the 
firmament of heaven to divide the day and the 
night, and let them be for signs and for seasons, 
and for days and years, to shine in the firma- 
ment of heaven, and give light upon the earth. 
And it was so done.''^ 

Although the earth enjoyed light and heat, yet 
these were not sufficient to promote the material 

a Gen. i, 13. 
b Ibid, i, 14, 15. 



42 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

-welfare of man who was soon to be called into 
existence. Besides, it had no seasons, no years, 
no months, no days, and could have none, before 
it received tangential force from its attractive 
center. But this it could not give itself, and hence, 
it would have remained in a state of rest to this 
moment, if God did not form and poise in space its 
attractive center. This self-luminous body may 
have been formed simultaneously vt^ith the earth 
on the third day, and, as we shall shortly see, we 
have every reason to believe that it and everybody 
in space v^ere formed at one and the same time, 
but not perfected.. If it were, it Tvas not only 
invisible but devoid of attractive force, owing to 
the possible fact that the celestial bodies were not 
endued with motive force before the fourth day, 
which w^as a measure of time. But my agnostics 
will object to this mode of philosophizing. They 
will ask me, as once before they did : ^^ How could 
so ponderous a mass, as is the sun, remain 
suspended in space, if gravitation were not active?^' 
Through the power of God. The logic of reason 
illumined by faith gives me the certainty that it 
was as easy for God to keep it suspended in space 
obedient to the law of inertia^ as it was to create 
the matter that entered into its formation. God 
is not bound by any law He framed for the gov- 
ernment of bodies in space. The cohesive attrac- 
tion, which united particle to particle, so as to 
form a spheroidal mass, He can destroy. He can 
stay the action of physical laws whenever He 



The Visible and hivisible Worlds, 43 

pleases. The time will arrive, when He will. He 
can even annihilate matter, but the act would be 
as stupendous a miracle as creation itself in all its 
complex and sublime gradations. 

After all the question is not very difficult of 
solution. Its difficulty is more apparent than real. 
Now if I admit that the sun and every other body 
in space, were simultaneously formed with our 
planet, what can agnostics make out of the 
admission ? If I further admit that the earth in 
its gaseous state, and in its subsequent molten 
one, revolved around its fiery center, will this 
invalidate the Mosaic record of creation ? It will 
not because the language of Genesis, as before 
stated, is very phenomenal. Through the world 
of sense, it places before our minds the series of 
creation, or the creative epochs, ^which can be 
accepted as one, during which second causes, or 
the powers of nature were employed to render 
them visible. It clothes in phenomenal language 
the results of the creative act, and their adorn- 
ment, under the supervision of the divine mind, 
through second causes. 

Then, as the language of Moses is addressed 
to reason through the world of sense, I think we 
may advance the theory that the sun sent his 
fiery rays to the earth during the third epoch of 
creation. But the heterogeneous atmosphere and 
the steam that escaped from the earth, shut them 
out. So soon as the atmosphere was freed from 
the heavy mass of carbonic acid which underwent 



^^ The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

solidification by entering into coal-measures, and 
so soon as the high temperature of our planet 
subsided by radiation into space, which occurred 
on the close of the third epoch, the sun appeared, 
and its light shed upon the earth, Moses calls the 
fourth day. 

Then gravity was not active until the fourth 
daJ^ If this be true, on that glorious day, the 
machinery of our solar system was put in ^^ork- 
ing order. Star systems, also, commenced to work 
through the force of those laws that were intrin- 
sically crowded in the chambers of material bodies, 
throughout the expanse of space. 

*^And God made two great lights; a greater 
light to rule the day and a lesser to rule the night; 
and the stars. And he set them in the firmament 
of heaven, to shine upon the earth ; and to rule 
the day and the night, and to divide the light from 
the darkness. And God saw that it v/as good. 
And the evening and the morning v^ere the fourth 
day.''^ 

The sun w^as no sooner formed and poised in 
space than motion commenced, which induced the 
change of seasons through the earth's orbitual 
motion and the succession of day and night 
through its axial rotation. 

Who can conceive the joy and wonder of the 
angels, who were themselves bright, spiritual 
orbs, upon beholding those massive bodies, worlds 
of light and glory, suspended in space for man's 

a Gen. i, i6, 19. 



The Visible aiid Invisible Worlds, 4.^ 

benefit, 'who was not yet made to enjoy their mar- 
velous beauty ? The goodness and the benignity 
of God displayed in the creation of the universe, 
caused those bright spirits to chant anthems of 
praise which reverberated throughout the crysta- 
line dome of heaven. Yes, indeed, "we can safely 
say that the greatness, the beauty and the glory 
of the external works of God elicited the praise 
and admiration of the angelic hosts who min- 
istered to Him, while building the complex 
universe. 

Now when the Almighty projected our planet 
into space, it pursued motion in a right line and 
would have continued this, in respect to direction, 
if no force disturbed it. But its original impulse 
was disturbed, and hence, it changed its path 
from rectilineal to curvilineal, that is, it described 
an ellipse. This elliptical motion, which resulted 
from an attractive force, v^onderfuUy displays the 
goodness of God towards man. ^* In 'what way,'' 
it may be asked? By the path of the earth 
through the sun's attraction. The earth's ellip- 
tical motion called into action a force which acted 
on another, and because both are equal, their 
resultant is at zero. Attraction of gravitation 
tends to cause water at the equator to seek its 
level, while the force that results from the earth's 
elliptical motion offers resistance, and hence, there 
is a dynamical equilibrium. To ascertain the 
truth of this, if a pail filled with water be whirled 
rapidly around, the water in the center will be 



^d The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

higher than at the circumference, and will so 
remain, without flowing over, so long as the force 
resulting from the circular motion acts upon it. 
The simple reason of this is, the centrifugal force, 
which makes the ^vater to fly from the centre, bal- 
ances the attraction of gravitation that tends to 
cause the water to seek its level or fall out. Of 
the fact w^e are aware that the water in the equa- 
torial regions is so elevated that, if it were allowed 
to seek its level, it would cover, as it once before 
did, all that portion of our globe, designed by the 
Almighty for man to abide upon, but centrifugal 
force prevents this. If the Creator were to sus- 
pend the axial motion of the earth for one moment, 
it and every planet in our solar system would 
fall into the sun. And if He were to suspend the 
action and continuity of gravitation, the universe 
would cease to exist. It would be tohu and bohu^ 
chaotic. How dependent, then, the grand universe 
is on God for the continuance of its being. How- 
dependent man is on Him, too, for a continuance 
of the life he enjoys. 

The wisdom and power of God displayed in 
the creation of those forces, the angel who spoke 
in His name, placed before the mind of holy Job, in 
the following sublime language: '^Who shut up 
the sea with doors, when it broke forth as issuing 
out of the womb ? When I made a cloud a gar- 
ment thereof, and wrapped it in a mist, as in 
swaddling bands. I set my bounds around it, and 
made it bars and doors, and said: Hither shall 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 4Y 

thou come, and shalt go no further ; and here thou 
shalt break thy swelling waters.''" 

This testimony of holyjob the book of Proverbs 
corroborates, which reads : ^^ When he compassed 
the sea within its bounds and set a law to the 
waters that they should not pass their limits ; 
when he balanced the foundation of the earth.''** 

How logically accurate the action of those 
forces is expressed in the above. How mathemat- 
ically precise, true science harmonizes with divine 
revelation, which tells us that God, through the 
action of those forces, confined the sea within 
limits, beyond which it cannot go. How logically 
true, the balancing of our planet, and every other 
body suspended in space, through the force of 
gravity, is expressed. The term, gravity, is not 
used, in order that our minds might find out what 
force in nature balances bodies in space. 

Now, I ask agnostics. If God did not confine 
the sea within limits, who or what else did ? Did 
the sea itself? No, because it is inanimate. Did 
chance? No, because it is nothing. Did nature? 
No, because it is only the aggregate of entities in 
the universe and the laws that govern them. But 
our planet, and every body, suspended in space, 
moves under the force of gravitation. Yes. What 
is gravitation? A force imparted to matter by 
which its particles tend towards each other. 
Gravitation asa lav^, is that force by which bodies, 

* Job, xxxviii, 8, 14. 
** Prov. viii, 29. 



^8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

or systems of bodies, in the universe attract each 
other with a force proportioned to their mass, and 
inversely to the square of their distance. Then, 
this force did not exist inherently in rudimentary 
matter. No. After matter was impressed with 
form, the Creator framed laws for its guidance. 

Here I will digress for a moment to examine 
the theory of Mr. Bryant which bears somewhat 
on the subjects I am discussing. He says : '' That 
matter as apart from force is the veriest fiction ; 
that the word, atom, is simply an unscientific cre- 
ation, a metaphysical noumenonof the middle-age 
mode of thought ; that attraction and repulsion, 
modes of force, are the basis or essence of matter; 
that the World-Energy is God, and that man is a 
result of God's self-unfolding.'' 

If the foregoing be not a metaphysical 
abnormity, I do not know what is. Matter exist- 
ing under its form, is not distinct from force; 
matter that existed before it was impressed with 
form, was distinct from force, because it had 
priority of existence to that of force. This is so 
evident that right reason will see it intuitively. It 
is not true that the word, ^^atom, is an unscientific 
creation, a metaphysical noumenon (a thing 
unknowable) of the middle-age mode of thought." 
An atom is an ultimate, indivisible particle of 
matter which chemically enters into combination, 
and hence, possesses a scientific quiddity. We 
know that atoms or particles of oxygen and 
hydrogen combine to form water ; that nitrogen. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 4g 

oxigen and carbonic acid combine to form air, and 
therefore they cannot be reduced to non-being. 
Neither is it true that attraction and repulsion 
constitute the essence of matter, because these 
laws, or forms of force are imponderable, while 
matter is. Matter can be shaped, repulsion and 
attraction cannot. It is as absurd to assert that 
attraction and repulsion are the essence of matter, 
as to assert that the steam which gives the engine 
motive force, is the engine itself. The essence of 
matter is its elementary constituents which are 
entirely distinct from the laws that govern them. 
The essence of matter which underlies its form is 
influenced by attraction and repulsion which have 
an existence extrinsic to it. Of the nature of 
elementary matter we are ignorant, because it 
never has entered the field of sense. To assert that 
the *^ World Energy is God,'' is a wild absurdity. 
This verbiage analyzed means that the universe 
and the laws that govern it are not God, because 
contingent. Man is not '^a result of God's 
unfolding," but is of God's creation. In the course 
of this work I will, again, advert to the vapidity 
of modern science. 

I have stated that our earth moves in its orbit. 
This is true. What is motion? A result of force. 
What is force? A result of power. First force 
results from first Power. Could brute matter 
originate force? Not any more than it could 
motion. When first Power bound together the 
atoms of matter that entered into the formation 



go The Visible mid Invisible Worlds, 

of the various bodies in space, the force of cohesion 
and chemical affinity ^^ere employed, and thence- 
forth, these ^^ere intrinsic or inherent in matter. 
When the Almighty made man and the various 
orders of beings that constitute the animal king- 
dom, He indued them, through the potency of life^ 
^th muscular force, by ^which they can move 
from place to place, put bodies around them in 
motion by acting upon them. Force in actu pritnOy 
is latent ; in actu secundo, is active. For instance, 
the faculty of thinking is an essential, intrinsic 
property of my soul, or a force in actu pritnOy 
but so soon as I reduce the thought to action, it 
becomes extrinsic, and hence, is a force in actu 
secundo. 

Now it must be evident to the most ordinary 
intellect, that dead matter could not originate 
force in actu primOy which is intrinsic in my soul. 
If it could, it created my soul, and hence, produced 
an effect greater than itself. Will any one of sound 
mind accept this vapidity for true science or right 
reason? No. And yet, agnostics, atheists, materi- 
alists and positivists want us to grant that there 
is no First Cause, no God who created matter, 
formed it into ponderous bodies and imparted 
laws to them for their guidance. To what they 
call *^ nature,'' they ascribe creative and formative 
energy, which is not inherent in it. Nature is 
deified and made dominant, while the truly Dom- 
inant and Omnipotent is ignored and argued out 
of existence by men made after His image and 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, jl 

likeness. These modern scientists, in order to 
belittle our earth, tell us that ^* nature or chance 
built an infinity of worlds, w^hich are inhabited 
with intelligent beings/' The plurality of worlds 
inhabited with human beings, is not a new doc- 
trine. Bruno, and many other scientists of his 
day, advanced this theory, but failed to prove it. 
Those philosophers who defended the geocentric 
theory, advocated it too, but ascribed thecreation 
of those worlds and their supposed inhabitants to 
God. I shall give the question a critical examina- 
tion in another part of this work. 

It is strange that men, gifted with reason and 
living under the marvelous glare of Christianity^ 
should deny the existence of Him who built the 
universe, and who is everywhere present in it by 
His conserving energy, which, if He ^were for one 
moment to withdraw, it would return to chaos. 
But so it is. The fool said in his hearty there is no 
God. 

Apart from divine revelation, the stary heavens, 
if properly studied by those men, would impress 
upon their minds the certainty of God's existence. 
But when the Deit3r is neither read in His w^orks 
, nor in His revelations, what wonder is it that w^e 
meet with men who deny His existence. 

One of this class said to me: '^That v^as a 
dreadful calamity that sv^ept Johnstown out of 
existence." I replied that it was, and that I "was 
sorry for its citizens who were visited with such 
an awful catastrophe. My sorrow he did not 



S2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, * 

doubt, but he did the existence of God. He did not 
only doubt His existence, but explicitly denied it. 
I asked him on what he based his denial of God's 
existence. He replied ^^ on the Johnstown horror : 
that if there be a good and kind God, as we 
preach Him to be, He should have prevented this 
misfortune. '^ 

Now, it must be evident to minds that are but 
partially illumined by the light of right reason, 
that God was no more bound to prevent this 
horror than He was a cyclone occasioned by the 
physical influence of the sun upon the atmosphere. 
If reports be true, the appalling event was a result 
of criminal negligence. By human ingenuity a 
force was created, which, at any time, was liable 
to burst the frail barrier that kept it from making 
the hills and dells resound with the fury of its 
destructive force. As it was left to its own 
guidance, which was as destructive as it was blind, 
it must not be charged to God. 

Frorn the divine activity, on the fourth day, 
resulted the motion of bodies in space. After the 
waters were gathered together in one place, and 
after dry land appeared, all the celestial orbs, 
which were previously formed, were put in motion 
by that jffat, which formed them and suspended 
them in space. 

The Almighty did not build the complex universe 
mechanically, piece after piece, body after body, 
and system after system. No, it was the work of 
a moment, an instantaneous act of the divine 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, jj 

Will. The Psalmist says: *'He spoke and they 
were made, he commanded and they were created. ' ^* 
Ecclesiasticus says: *^He that liveth for ever, 
created all things together/ ^^ Is not this view 
opposed to the Mosaic record? No. The record, 
as we have seen, is phenomenal. During the third 
epoch bodies were formed, but as before stated, 
were not endued with the law of gravitation. 
Although formed, and poised in space, they were 
devoid of motion, owing to the absence of motive 
force. As primal man was not a living, active 
being before his body was vitalized by the soul 
imparted to it, so too, bodies in space were not 
active before attraction of gravitation was com- 
municated to them. So soon as it was, they 
commenced to move. But, do not the recession of 
the waters, the appearance of dry land and the 
growth ofherbs weaken my theory ? No. Although 
the earth produced incipient vegetation, yet it had 
no axial motion, for the reason stated. It and the 
celestial spheres, rested on their natural founda- 
tion, inertiaj from the time of their formation, till 
the fourth day, on which they were sent to journey 
through the depth of space. From the first epoch 
to the fourth day of creation, second causes, under 
the direction of the divine Mind, ^vere employed 
in adjusting and perfecting all bodies in space. 
The interval, which the human mind cannot grasps 
that intervened between the first and fourth day, 

* Psalm, xxxii, 9. 

a ;^cclesiasticus, xviii, i. 



§4- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

may have been one, unbroken succession of dura- 
tion, we cannot say time, during which the Creator, 
and the second causes He called into action, ^^ere 
fitting the various bodies in space for the duties 
they were to perform in time. Geology proves to 
a certainty, that cold-blooded, non-breathing 
creatures existed during the aqueous epoch, which, 
by their secrations, formed limestone, oolite, 
marble and chalk. Opposed to this statement of 
geology, is that of Moses, which says that crea- 
tures of the animal kingdom \\rere not created 
before the fifth day, which witnessed an end of the 
carboniferous period. Now, by accepting the six 
days mentioned by Moses as one day, or one 
epoch, the antagonism that exists bet\^reen the 
science of geology and the statement of Moses dis- 
appears. This view of the question is sustained 
by Moses himself, where he says : '' These are the 
generations of heaven and the earth, when they 
were created in the day that the Lord God made 
the heaven and the earth. ^ 

Saint Augustine, Bede and Patavius were of the 
opinion that the days of creation ^tvere one con- 
tinued period. So, too, were Saints Basil, Chry- 
sostom and Ambrose, v^hose writings the reader 
can see on this question. 

The mundane phenomena I have examined in 
this chapter have been to my mind problems I 
more than once attempted to solve, but with little 
success. Time and again, rounded pebbles, igneous 

b Gen., ii, 4. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, JJ 

rock, marble and limestone, w^hich resulted from 
animal secretions, heat, water, pressure and car- 
bonic acid, have carried my thoughts backward 
to the birth of matter, whose creation belongs to 
God, while its adornment resulted from second 
causes under the guidance of the Eternal Word. 
Admitting, then, for sake of conveying the idea 
couched in the language of Moses,, that the celes- 
tial spheres were swung into mid-space on the 
fourth day, how grand was the sight of those 
worlds glowing in the glory of light. Of this 
glorious day, which lighted the universe ^^ith 
marvelous light and imparted motion to the celes- 
tial spheres, who can form an idea? On their 
going forth, there ^was no turmoil, no confusion, 
no disorder. No ; order reigned supreme, because 
it is heaven^s first law. The motive £at was no 
sooner uttered by the Eternal Word, than bodies 
in space obeyed it. In the untraceable depths of 
immensurable space it was instantly obeyed. In 
the ever-increasing background of space, bodies, 
ponderous bodies, which, because of distance, 
appear as particles of diamond dust, obeyed this 
motive Bat. From this it follows that gravita- 
tion influences every body, and every system of 
bodies in the whole expanse of the universe. Its 
continuity is co-extensive with space, which, in 
mathematical language, is illimitable. As a proof 
of this, we know to a certainty that satellites are 
dependent on suns, and suns, again, on multiple 
systems, ^vhich form an inconceivable continuity 



^6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

in the expanse of space, by balancing attraction 
^which is dependent on first Law, first Power, for 
its activity. As a further proof, there is no part 
of the heavens to which we point the telescope, 
but we descry, dimly, it is true, irresolvable 
nebulae, and dense strata of intervening stars in 
motion. Human thought may extend itself 
onward and outward, and yet be within the 
starry gulf of external immensity ; and through- 
out this physical immensity, if illumined by the 
light of faith, it can see unfailing, active, first 
Power — God. 



CHAPTER II. 

OUR SOLAR SYSTEM — THE BODIES THAT COMPOSE 

. IT — THEIR MOTION — GRAVITATION — LIGHT — THE 

VELOCITY OF ITS MOTION — ARE THE BODIES 

THAT COMPOSE OUR SOLAR SYSTEM INHABITED ? 

The bodies that form our solar system are, the 
Sun, Vulcan, Mercury, Venus, the Earth, the 
Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Nep- 
tune. The Sun, the ^^ great lighf which God' 
made to ^^ rule the day,'' is the center of our sys- 
tem, and the source of light and heat which our 
earth enjoys. Of its chemical composition little is 
known, notwithstanding our boasted knowledge 
of astronomy. If this be true, and it is, how can 
we acquire a knowledge of those bodies suspended 
in space, billions of millions of miles from our 
planet? The Sun is a self-luminous mass of 
matter, poised in space by Almighty Power, and 
is supposed to be about 91,430,000 miles distant 
from our earth. Its diameter is computed to be 
107 times that of our globe, while its circumfer- 
ence is 2,786,000 miles, and its equatorial motion 
4,400 miles per hour round its axis. Astronomers 
are of the opinion that the attractive center of the 
Sun is in the region of the Pleiades,' as its motion 

I. The Pleiades are seven small stars situated in the neck of Taurus. 
They revolve in a plane adjacent to the Milky Way or Gallaxy. Some 
astronomers say that they are self-balancing, but the statement is false,, 
because opposed to the universality of gravitation. 57 



^8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

has been ascertained to be towards that point. 
Granting this to be true, what body is the attrac- 
tive center of the Pleiades ? Some other one more 
massive in the regions of space. But can we stop 
at this ? No. Were \sre to grope in the immensity 
of space till the crack of Doom's Day, w^e must 
come to an unseen, omnipotent First Cause — God, 
who rules, directs and regulates the motion of the 
celestial bodies. He, and He alone, is the motive 
center of all bodies in space. He, and He alone holds 
His grip upon them. He is first gravitation, 
attraction, power and law, because outside of Him, 
independent of Him, there is no self-existing gravity 
or motion. This folio v^s as a result from the fact 
that He is in all bodies by His conserving energy, 
but not of them, and that all bodies, being con- 
tingent, are in Him, but not of Him. Any con- 
clusion other than this, v^ould be pantheistic 
materialism. 

Almighty Power formed and poised the sun in 
space to keep the planets in their proper place, to 
light up and warm the earth. If the heat and 
light of the sun were excluded from our earth, an 
icy sea would incircle it from pole to pole, and 
death w^ould reign supreme on its surface. Through 
the influence of the sun during Summer trees, 
plants and shrubs receive warmth, which, in 
Spring, transforms their sap into buds, leaves, 
flowers and fruit. The wood and coal which we 
burn during the ^nter to keep us ^warm, derived 
their primal germ, or vitalizing force from the sun. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. jg 

All the organic productions of the vegetable king- 
dom, from the mosses of the Arctic regions to the 
pines and tangled jungle of the Tropics, receive 
their nutriment, carbon, through the air, from the 
sun. Through the sun's influence animated nature 
is awakened into life, into smiles, into fertility for 
man's benefit. 

As plant life is dependent on the sun, so too, is 
animal. The material substance requisite to 
sustain animal life is derived from plants, -which, 
as before stated, receive their nutriment from the 
sun. The inorganic substance that enters into 
their constitution is had from the earth, while their 
organic substance is derived from the sun through 
the atmosphere. Food, then, for animals is ob- 
tained from plants and plants and animals are 
used as food for man. As man must use material 
food to support the life of his body, so must he 
spiritual to sustain the life of his soul. 

From our constant vision of the sun, a person 
who is not versed in the science of astronomy, 
would be apt to conclude that we know all about 
this orb, but such is not the case. Our ignorance 
of the sun's chemistry results not so much from its 
distance, as it does from its fiery robes which 
prevent us from getting an accurate view of it. 
With the blinding light of the orb of day we are 
familiar, but with its components \\re are in the 
dark. 

That the sun is enveloped in intense flame, is 
evident ; that the upper stratum of this is white 



6o The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

and that the lower is dark, is evident too. Astron- 
omers call the upper stratum photosphere (Gr. 
photos, light and spharia, a sphere,) and the lower 
cromospherey from its tinted color. The upper and 
lower stratum of the sun's light and heat is believed 
to be a result of hydrogen gas in a state of flagra- 
tion. Some astronomers notwithstanding the 
testimony obtained through the spectrum analysis, 
contradict this theory by stating that ^^ the pho- 
tosphere of the sun is a vast stratum of atmosphere, 
full of gaseous matter in a state of combustion.'' 
That this assertion is unphilosophical is self- 
evident, because the mind cannot conceive the 
unity of atmosphere and gas in a state of com- 
bustion on the sun's disk. If the sun has an 
atmosphere, it is a fiery one, and is, therefore, one 
and the same with its photosphere. Others, that 
** the matter which forms the photosphere is ejected 
from the body of the sun through craters, called 
sun-specks." Yet others that the planets in their 
motion around the sun supply it with gas, which, 
when ignited constitutes its light and heat. ^^These 
assertions are too unscientific to merit notice. It 
is not true that the matter which is reduced to a 
fiery state on the sun's disk, is ejected from its 
body through craters, or sun-specks," because 
those sun-specks, as any one can see who wishes, 
change their position, contract and cross each 
other, and hence, are not stationary and active 
craters. It is equally untrue to state that ^^the 
planets in their motion around the sun supply it 



The Visibh a?id Invisible Worlds. 6i 

with gas/' because it is against the law of gravity 
for a particle of matter to escape from the surface 
of one body in space to another. Besides, if the 
height of our atmosphere be 58 miles, how can it 
supply the disk of the sun with gas ? At a height 
of 60 miles we find a vast expanse of ether which 
is too rarefied to convey gas to the sun. 

The sun is enveloped in a flame of vast dimen- 
sions, as is our planet in one of air, which results 
from iron, copper, sodium, barium, chromium and 
other metals in a fusible state. How do we know 
this? Through the spectroscope, an optical 
instrument used in the examination of electric, or 
white light refracted by the agency of a prism. 

It is an admitted fact that the sun supplies our 
earth with natural light and heat, which consist 
of minute vibrations through the medium of ether. 
So soon as light impinges on the retina of the eye, 
it causes vision, in the same way as the vibrations 
of air cause hearing when they impinge on the tym- 
panum of the ear. Bodies in space which produce 
light, or luminous vibrations, are said to be self- 
luminous, v^hile those that reflect light are opaque 
or dark. A beam of light differs from a ray, only 
in its rays being parallel, and hence, stronger, 
while a pencil of light is composed of rays which 
either converge or diverge. Every ray of light, if 
the medium be uniform, moves in a straight line, 
according to the first law of motion. If the 
medium be not uniform, then it moves obliquely. 
When light comes in contact with a surface, it is 



62 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

reflected in all directions. Electric or white light 
is capable of resolving itself into seven different 
colors. This discovery w^as made by Newton, who 
cut a circular hole in the door of a darkened room 
for the admission of solar light. Now^, by the 
interposition of a prism between the darkened 
w^all and the ray of light, the ray was decomposed 
into all the colors of the rainbow. The action of 
the sun's rays on snow-crystals or on a diamond, 
produces the same phenomenon. Snow^-crystals 
are nature's prismatic spectrums, but they 
have no synthetical force, because they cannot 
recombine. 

The corpuscular theory, which teaches that 
*^ light is composed of material particles, w^hich 
eminate from a luminous source,'' I reject because 
it is non-scientific, and therefore, false. If we 
admit this theory, we must admit that light and 
heat are ponderable, and this we cannot prove. 
We know from experiment that a bar of iron 
heated to a white heat is not any heavier than it 
was before being heated, and hence the falsity of 
the corpuscular theory. The undulatory is the 
only one that will stand a philosophic criticism. 

Waves of light are propagated through the 
medium of ether at right angles to the line of the 
ray, and travel at the rate of 192,500 miles per 
second. As ether is very elastic, and as it is not 
subject to any elementary disturbance, its motion 
in free space is almost instantaneous, and hence 
the rapid motion of light. To the passage of light 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 63 

through its ethereal medium, there is no apparent 
motion. The human eye, from its construction, 
can only note the transverse vibrations of light. 

The light decomposed by the prism can be 
recombined, so that again it appears as ^vhite 
or electric light. As the method does not belong 
to a work like this, I shall state that we know 
little of the nature of light, whose intensity varies 
as the square of the distance, and that of the 
nature of electricity we know nothing. Electricity 
is an imponderable force, which is diffused 
throughout the universe. It exists in matter 
without giving the least indication of its presence. 
It does not enter into the world of sense, unless 
its equilibrium is disturbed. For passivity or rest 
it has a strong affinity, and this results from the 
fact that statical equilibrium is one of the la^vs of 
force. 

Science teaches, and correctly, that currents of 
electricity constantly traverse the earth^s crust in 
a straight line from east to ^west, and hence, that 
the earth is one vast magnet. If we admit this to 
be true, and we must, could we not, also, admit 
that it is this electric force that is the cause of 
earthquakes ? Some of my readers will say ^^ no ; 
that earthquakes result from igneous force shut 
up in the nucleus of the earth.'' Can this asser- 
tion be proved ? It cannot. A mass of condensed 
matter, such as is the- earth's crust, one thousand 
miles deep or thick, is very ponderous, and hence 
would require an inconceivable amount of force to 



64 ^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

give it a tremulous motion. In support of my 
theory, it has been ascertained that the motion of 
earthquakes in regions remote from active vol- 
canos is horizontal and rectilineal, while that in 
the vicinity of volcanos is vertical. It has also 
been ascertained that electric impulses given to 
the bed of the ocean, act simultaneously on the 
adjacent land, and on the atmosphere. This seems 
to favor my theory. Be the case as it may, the 
acceptance of a vast, molten, subterranean sea, is 
more theoretical than real. The primordial, 
incandescent state pf our globe does not at all 
warrant its truth, because the earth, from a con- 
stant loss of heat, is solidifying. Besides, if its 
crust, in its primordial or incipient state, be philo- 
sophically examined, it will be found that sedi- 
mentary matter, vsrhich resulted from the aqueous 
period, entered into its formation. The molecules 
that so entered, ^svere united by carbonic acid gas, 
and from its cementing resulted pearlstone, obsi- 
dian, mica, silica or quartz and conglomerate rock. 
These, which are non-fusible, not only formed the 
lower stratum of the earth's crust, but filled its 
nucleus. In connection with these are molten 
trap and molten matter of sundry varieties which 
form a heterogeneous mass in the earth's interior. 
The filmy crust no sooner commenced to form, 
than radiation set in, which continues to this 
moment, and which, proportioned to its force, 
induced the solidification and depth of the crust. 
Now, if the nucleus of the earth were a molten 



The Visible a?ici hivisible Worlds. 6$ 

sea, is it not reasonable to suppose that its crust 
would bend downward from its weight and from 
the earth's rotation, and hence, like the surface of 
the moon, be unfit for human beings to abide on. 
If the crust of the earth did not descend into its 
nucleus, how could it sustain the weight of those 
huge mountain ranges that exist on its surface? 
Do not active Yolcanos disprove my theory? No, 
because I do not argue a total solidification, but 
a partial one, according to the requirements of 
nature or second causes. I think the opinion can 
be safely advanced that, so soon as the cooling 
process commenced, second causes formed a bridge, 
so to speak, composed of fragmentary quartz, 
over the fiery liquid ocean, which has increased in 
density proportioned to the cooling force that has 
acted and still acts on the earth's interior. But a 
philosopher (Wells) states that ^ ^ the temperature 
of the earth's crust increases one degree F. for 
every fifty feet, beyond the influence of solar 
heat." Now, if we suppose that the temperature 
increases at this ratio, at the depth of thirty 
miles, every material substance would be reduced 
to a liquid state. Then, what w^ould be the condi- 
tion of the under stratum of the earth's crust ? 
Would it not yield to the intensely fiery ocean that 
surges against it ? Yes, and after a period of time, 
it would entirely be liquified. But this theory, 
advanced in the name of science we cannot accept, 
because science teaches the contrary. We know 
that artesian w^ells have been bored to a depth of 



66 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

three thousand feet, which yielded water icy cold, 
and this results from the fact the heat in the 
earth's crust is not uniform. 

If earthquakes result from igneous force shut 
up in the earth's nucleus, what is it that disturbs 
the equilibrium of this force ? A geologist (Lyell) 
answers this question by asserting that, ^'the 
craters of volcanos absorb a vast quantity of 
atmosphere, ^while heavily loaded with vapor; that 
this is converted into steam, which, in its effort 
to escape, causes earthquakes." This assertion 
vsrill not stand a philosophical criticism. Now, is 
it not evident that when volcanos are quiescent 
their craters do not absorb air loaded with vapor 
in quantity sufficient, when resolved into steam, to 
disturb the equilibrium of the supposed fiery ocean; 
and when active the greater attractive force exists 
in the atmosphere, which prevents absorption on 
the part of the crater. Do not earthquakes, which 
take place in the proximity of active volcanos, dis- 
prove my theory? No, because by the law of 
affinity, the electricity in the earth's crust, adjacent 
to the volcano, is attracted towards it, and in its 
journey it carries with it the detritus which it 
fused, and which is sent into space. 

It is an admitted fact that a great quantity of 
water, which falls upon the earth, sinks into its 
crust and forms sub terrenean lakes, rivers and sink 
holes. This water, in some parts of the earth's 
crust, owing to the presence of carbonic acid, 
erodes limestone and passes through it; it also 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 67 

passes through sandstone and all kinds of matter 
of a loose texture. In its descent it becomes heated 
proportioned to the activity or passivity of elec- 
tricity that permeates the earth's crust. When 
heated through electric force, its oxygen, from the 
law of affinity, excites the passive electricity, or 
gives it vibratory motion, which it conveys to that 
part of the superincumbent crust, and this we call 
an earthquake. In tropical regions, the heat of the 
sun which reaches lOO^F, is an efficient agent in 
the production of earthquakes. 

To further account for the source of the lava in 
the volcanic pit, and the cause of the various 
degrees of temperature in the earth's crust, ^would 
carry me a^^ay from the object of my w^ork. On 
the shadowy question, I will, however, state that 
the mass of molten matter in the volcanic pit 
results from fissures occasioned by the intensity 
of electric heat, and not through igneous force at 
a depth of one thousand miles. 

Although earthquakes result from second causes, 
yet they are mediately of a First. The divine 
Mind saw that the rock, the coal and the various 
kinds of mineral, which were formed during the 
long day of creation, would be inaccessible to 
man because of their immense depth in the earth's 
crust, and hence, through the force of earthquakes, 
they were tilted, elevated and placed within the 
powers of his energy. All the phenomena, all the 
geological revolutions that took place during the 
immeasurable period of creation, ^svere for man's 



68 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

benefit. The glory, the beauty, the sublimity, the 
harmony and the wealth of the universe, have 
relation to no material being, to no finite entity, 
but man. Then, is he not important ? Yes, but 
many of the human family forget their importance 
and ignore the Author of their being. 

Although v^e kno^w nothing of the nature of 
electricity, yet we knov^ something of its move- 
ments and fatal results. Atmospheric electricity 
moves with such great rapidity (288,000 miles 
per second), that no .appreciable time is perceived 
during its motion. Through the medium of ether, 
it moves in a straight line, but v^hen it moves 
through our atmosphere, it changes its rectilineal 
motion into a crinkled or a zigzag one. This we 
have time and again v^itnessed, but, perhaps, from 
our ignorance of its cause, paid no attention to 
it. Now, so soon as lightning moves through the 
atmoshpere, whose density increases as it reaches 
the earth, it condenses the air, and this condensa- 
tion turns the electric fluid aside, while the 
atmoshpere so condensed, is resolved into water, 
which gravitates towards the earth in the form of 
rain, or in more scientific language, the fluid sus- 
tained by the atmosphere is condensed and grav- 
itates towards the earth. Thunder clouds are 
always highly electrified, and hence can be easily 
distinguished from non-electrified ones. When a 
cloud is highly electrified it inductively acts upon 
another less charged, or upon the earth, which is 
an attractive magnet, and discharges will occur. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 6g 

The transition of the electricity from the highly 
charged cloud to the earth, or to a non-charged 
cloud through the medium of the earth, causes a 
collapse of the incumbent air which we call thun- 
der. From this it will be seen that lightning in 
itself, or electricity, is not the cause of a thunder- 
storm, but a result of it. What we call heat- 
lightning, chain-lightning and sheet-lightning, are 
not different from forked-lightning. The four are 
one and the same. Their different names result 
from the circumstances which surround the person 
who observes the lightning. 

During the prevalence of a thunder-storm, the 
electricity in the crust of the earth and that in the 
atmosphere attract each other. This generates 
an upward and downw^ard electric action, ^which 
necessitates the erection of lightning rods on 
buildings for protection. Unless the rods are well 
jointed and set in moisture, they afford no pro- 
tection. During a thunder storm it is impru- 
dent to go under a tall tree for protection, as 
the individual is a better conductor than the tree, 
which only attracts. Silk, feathers and wet gar- 
ments afford protection, but that silk be a protec- 
tion, the person must be w^hoUy covered with this 
fabric. The same applies to feathers, when 
resorted to for protection. 

If one be exposed to the fury of a thunderstorm, 
he can tell its proximity by a simple rule and save 
himself from injury. From the appearance of the 
flash to the collapse of the air, let him count the 



70 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

seconds : the sum equals the distance of the thun- 
derstorm from him. If three seconds elapse from 
the time the flash is seen to the collapse of the air, 
then, the storm is distant from him 1140 yards, 
because sound travels 380 yards per second. If 
the flash and the collapse of the atmosphere be 
simultaneous, then, the storm surrounds him, and 
his best means to escape injury is, to assume a 
recumbent position. 

I have stated already the fact that the sun 
supplies our planet with heat. Besides, electric, 
chemical and mechanical agency impart heat to it. 
With these truths we are so familiar that they 
need no explanation. When heat strikes a body, 
its molecules recede from each other, and this 
gives it expansion. Heat will change a solid into 
a liquid and a liquid into gas, or the reverse, if the 
temperature becomes lower. The velocity of heat 
is equal to that of light, and its motion is in a 
straight line, if the medium be uniform. When 
rays of heat come in contact with a body, some of 
them pass into it through absorption, while the 
remainder are reflected. The law of reflexion is, 
that the ^^ angle of incidence equals the angle of 
reflection, and that their intensity is weakened 
after reflection.'' Now, the intensity of radiated 
heat varies as the temperature of its source ; ' 4t 
varies inversely as the square of the distance, and 
grows less, while the inclination of the rays to the 
surface of the radiant grows less.'' As these laws 
are self-evident they need no demonstration. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, ^i 

Here it may be instructive to some of my 
readers to answer the following question which 
has been often asked by non-scientific persons. 
''Why do not the solar rays melt the snow that 
exists on the summit of mountains in all climates?" 
Because the temperature of the air on top of the 
mountains, at a given elevation, is as low as the 
freezing point. At the equator the limit is about 
three miles high, ^which descends towards the 
poles. As snow is a poor absorbent of solar rays, 
and as the temperature of the mountain's peak is 
not so high as at its base, owing to its elevation, it 
remains cold, and, hence the presence of snow dur- 
ing the warmest seasons. As the atmosphere 
ascends the side of a mountain to its top, it expands 
by a law of nature from diminished pressure, and 
therefore, absorbs the heat that exists on the peaks 
of mountains. Another reason can be assigned. 
The air on the top of lofty mountains is not so 
heavily loaded with vapor, as it is on the earth's 
surface, and it is not so oxygenized and nitrogen- 
ized as it is on the surface of the earth, too. Its 
components are less in quantity, and hence, its 
attenuation and consequent cold. Some philos- 
ophers say that oxygen, nitrogen and carbonic 
acid, which constitute our atmosphere, unless 
loaded with water, are not influenced by solar 
heat, and that from their nature they are cooling. 
Whether nitrogen is insensible to heat or not, I 
cannot say, but I know that oxygen united with 
hydrogen, becomes more or less thermic, propor- 



*12 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

tioned to the heat it receives from the sun or from 
mechanical agency. We have already seen that 
the atmosphere is not of a uniform density. The 
density of the air decreases in a geometrical, as its 
altitude increases in an arithmetical ratio . Beyond 
an altitude of five miles, our atmosphere could not 
sustain animal life. It is said that the atmosphere 
extends one hundred and fifty miles above our 
earth. If this be true, it is not air but ether. The 
atmosphere is regarded by many philosophers as 
invisible. But this I do not admit, because I know 
that the azure dome of heaven, that is, its clear, 
blue color, is a result of the atmosphere. Noiv, 
as color is not in space, it must be in that element 
which imparts to it this property. The atmos- 
phere is a promoter of the earth's fertility by 
carrying moisture from the ocean to it, propor- 
tioned to its temperature. If our planet were 
stripped by the Almighty of its atmospheric gar- 
ments, it would not sustain animal or vegetable 
life. Then, how good God is to man by giving 
him the use of this estimable gift. 

Warmth in animal bodies is produced by the 
consumption of oxygen which passes into their 
lungs through breathing the air, and becomes 
united with their blood. It is this that gives pul- 
sation to the animal heart through the physical 
force it imparts to the blood. It is this gas alone 
that promotes combustion. The heat felt in the 
human stomach from the presence of alcohol 
results from the combustive force of oxygen. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 7J 

Although nitrogen, as a diluent, exists in the 
atmosphere in a greater quantity than oxygen, 
yet it neither promotes combustion nor animal 
life. Why it does not I could not find out. Because 
of the utility of oxygen, it is the most plentiful 
substance in our solar system. It is everywhere 
present and active in the nucleus of the sun; it 
forms one-third of the solid mass of our planet; it 
constitutes eight-ninths of the water of the globe, 
and a fourth part of the atmosphere. In the crea- 
tion of this gas God had in view the wants of 
man. Without the presence and action of this 
gas he, and all the creatures of the animal king- 
dom, w^ould perish from cold. If it did not exist 
during the carboniferous period, we would have 
no coal measures. How good, then, God has been 
to His children in His bestowal on them of the 
gifts of nature and grace, and how thankless 
many of them are for those gifts. 

The planet Vulcan, a member of our solar sys- 
tem, and one of the nearest bodies to the sun, is 
distant from it 13,082,000 miles, and completes 
its orbitual revolution in about nineteen days. 
The proximity of this body to the sun robes it in 
garments of dazzling and blinding light. This has 
prevented, time and again, astronomers from 
taking a good view of it. Owing to the vast sea 
of intense light that envelops it, it cannot be ^ivell 
defined, and hence, its chemistry is mostly shut 
out from scientific conjecture. Some astronomers 
assert that this planet has an atmosphere, 



7^ The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

others deny that it has. Why it should have an 
atmosphere is not said. If it have one, it is too 
highly heated for animal beings to inhale. One 
astronomer ^<tvhom I consulted on the chemis- 
try of this planet, says: ^*If it had no cooling 
atmosphere to modify the sun's heat, it ^would be 
consumed, and its scinders and ashes ^^ould add 
to the sun's bulk." Perhaps, but I doubt the 
truth of the gratuitous assertion. In the work- 
ings of nature, there is, and will be to the end of 
time, supernatural direction. The Almighty who 
formed this body, regulates the sun's heat, so that, 
in the absence of an atmosphere, Vulcan Tvill not 
be incinerated. It will shine in borrowed light 
and bask in solar heat till time ends. Brute 'mat- 
ter obeys God, man does not. What a deep stain 
his disobedience imprints on the dignity of his 
nature! To assert that this planet is inhabited 
with human beings, would be to assert falsehood, 
and torture common sense. 

The second planet of our solar system is Mercury, 
^jvhose distance from the sun is 35,392,638 miles, 
and whose orbitual motion is 105,330 miles per 
hour. It traverses its orbit in 88 days, which con- 
stitute its year. Its axial rotation occupies 24? 
hours and a few^ minutes. Mercury, like Vulcan, 
has no atmosphere. And even if it have, it could 
not be inhabited with human beings, owing to its 
intense heat and the variableness of its seasons 
which results from its axial inclination. Its other 



The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds, 75 

peculiarities belong to astronomy and not to a 
work like this. 

Venus, the third planet of our system, which 
lies between the orbit of Mercury and that of the 
Earth, is distant from the sun 66,131,478 miles, 
and its orbitual motion is 77,050 miles per hour. 
This beautiful queen of the starry heavens v^as 
called by the ancient philosophers ^^ Lucifer and 
Hesperus,'' from its supposed office of ushering in 
the * twilight dawn of morning and the dusky 
evening close.'' From the proximity of this glo- 
rious queen to the sun, her marvelous beauty is 
veiled from the vision of astronomers in garments 
of blinding light. This planet is said to have an 
atmosphere, but I doubt the truth of the assertion. 
What seems to be an atmosphere, in all scientific 
probability, if I can so speak, is nothing more 
than vapor, similar to that which overhung the 
earth during the third epoch of creation. This 
conclusion I deduce from the temperature of this 
planet, which is never more distant from its prim- 
ary than 47 degrees. If this be true, and it is, on 
the testimony of astronomy, cannot the logic of 
common sense smile at the credulity of those who 
assert that Venus has an atmosphere. How can 
a man affirm in the name of science what it does 
not prove. If Venus had an atmosphere, her glory 
and brilliancy would be non-visible to telescopic 
observation. This planet is said to be accompa- 
nied by a satelite, but the opinion has no basis to 
rest on. It is further said that snow and ice exist 



7^ The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

on the polar regions, but this is empty assertion. 
What seems to be a frozen region, covered with 
snow, is nothing more than cosmical vapor, such 
as we see in the Milky Way. Be the case as it 
may, this planet, from its intense heat, is not 
inhabited \7ith human beings. Of its chemistry, 
little is known. 

We must now descend fromstarry space to take 
a view of Mother Earth and compare her with the 
other bodies that form our solar system. 

Of all the bodies in space, as far as the tele- 
scope has been able to penetrate, the earth is the 
most condensed,^ beautiful and attractive. For 
its benefit it would seem that all other bodies in 
space were formed. The huge -mass known as the 
center of our system, was formed to keep it in its 
place, to warm it and shed his light upon it during 
the day, while the moon inundates it with a sea 
of silvery light during the night. Those sparkling 
gems were formed and hung up in heaven's blue 
dome, to ornament it. They are the Almighty's 
frescoing of its ceiling. For the earth the atmos- 
phere was called into existence. Without this 
element it could not sustain animal and vegetable 
life. When the Almighty formed the earth. He 
made it a vast magnet, in order that it might, by 
its attractive force, check and partially control the 

a. Mercury, although smaller than our planet, is said to be more con- 
densed than it is. Why this is so, astronomers do not say. If astronomers 
were not so prone to jump at conclusions, and if they were more 
philosophical in their examination of the heavenly bodies, I would 
think higher of the science than I do. It is painful to examine the crude 
theories of some which are opposed to truthful science and the instincts of 
common sense. 



The Visible and l7ivisible Worlds, 77 

action of atmospheric electricity. The surface of 
the earth is beautiful, from the variety and 
grandeur of its natural scenery. Its floral beauty 
and mineral wealth; the sighing of its night- 
winds and the howling of its storms ; the angry, 
crested billows of its oceans and the feverish 
excitement of its imprisoned fire; the variety of 
animals that sport in its seas and roam on its 
surface, impart to our minds an idea of its beauty 
and sublimity. 

But, our earth is not only beautiful and attrac- 
tive because of its wealth and marvelous scenery, 
but also because it was the home of the Incarnate 
Word. Although the Eternal Word had thousands 
of central bodies in the domain of His vision, each 
superior in bulk and luminosity to our little 
planet, yet He did not select any of them to be the 
home of His Humanity. No. His choice was our 
earth, man's abode, v^hose darkness induced by 
sin, was to give way to the coruscations of His 
divine light. As our earth was to be the plane of 
His Incarnation, He lavished wealth on it, deco- 
rated it, not for Himself but for man, beyond com- 
prehension. And this w^ealth and this beauty lay 
for epochs in the glory of solitary sunshine before 
man was created to enjoy them, and before the 
Eternal Word came to assume Humanity for His 
redemption. Since then, such cannot be said of 
any other body in space, it follows that our earth 
Is the most lovely, rich and important body in 
the whole expanse of the complex universe. 



18 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

True and impressive as this reasoning is, never- 
theless, it is rejected by infidelity, which ignores 
the supernatural. Led by the teachings of false 
philosophy, it places its supreme good in brute 
matter which it deifies, by induing it with creative 
and formative power which belong to a First 
Cause. It does more: it \\rorships brute matter 
and scoffs at all those v^ho believe in and v^orship 
the Creator. Nature and chance are its gods, 
while averice and sensuality are its religion. Its 
various systems I will examine in another part of 
this work. 

Our planet is distant from the sun 91,430,220 
miles. Its orbitual motion is about 65,533 miles 
an hour and its orbit is traversed in 365 days and 
some hours. It moves from west to east. In 
olden times it was considered an immovable center 
around which the sun, moon and stars revolved. 
At this we must not w^onder, because Christianity, 
from pagan persecution, could not well turn her 
attention to scientific pursuits. From the fifth to 
the fifteenth century, she was christianizing the 
northern barbarians who divided among them- 
selves the semi-civilized Roman empire. During 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Europe was 
so crazed with *^ religious'' reformers, that every 
nailer and tailor, every weaver and dreamer was 
a scripturian and a theologian to the detriment of 
true religion and physical science. Not till the 
year 1536 was the geocentric theory rejected and 
the heliocentric accepted. This theory owes its 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. yg 

being to Copernicus, who attributed to the earth 
a threefold motion — a daily on its axis, an annual 
around its center, and one of axial declension. As 
the latter resulted from miscalculation, it was 
rejected. The honor of the heliocentric theory is 
not solely due to Copernicus. No, indeed, for ages 
before Christianity blessed the earth Pythagoras 
and Archimedes advanced it, and one hundred 
years before he was ushered into time and space, 
Cardinal de Cusa taught that our planet was 
circular in form, rotated on its axis and moved 
in space. 

The moon, an attendant upon the earth, is the 
fifth body of our solar system, and is distant from 
the earth 238,835 miles. This satellite completes 
its orbitual revolution in 27 days, 7 hours and 43 
minutes. Its traverse diameter is 2160 miles and 
its vertical 1740 miles. So astronomers tell us. To 
assert that the moon has an axis of its own, as the 
sun and the planets have, would be scientifically 
untrue, because its elliptical orbit around the 
earth is not axial. The axes of the sun and planets 
are lines that pass through their diameters on 
which they revolve independent of their orbits. 
As this axis, or line does not exist on or pass 
through the moon's diameter, being external to it, 
it follows that it has no axis, and therefore, no 
rotation. 

The astronomers Madler and Beer have asserted 
that the moon has seas and an atmosphere ; but 
these scientific assertions are looked upon as a 



8o The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

fallacy by those ^who have examined the lunar 
surface through Lord Ross' powerful reflector. 
What seems to be seas are depressions, and what 
appears to be atmosphere is nothing more than 
exudation from its interior heat, which is very 
feeble. From the absence of an atmosphere, not a 
vestige of animal or vegetable life appears on the 
moon's disc. 

Upon viewing the moon through a good 
reflector, we are forcibly struck by the irregularity 
of its surface. Before our vision appear innumer- 
able crater-formed mountains 20,000 feet high, 
volcanic craters and cones, ejected blocks of lava 
and precipitous ring-shaped ridges. In vain do 
spring and summer salute the queen of night. 
Their advent do not induce the return of seasons 
on her surface, and hence, neither the sighing 
vrinds nor the soft melody of birds break her 
silence. The vast lunar range of mountains is 
believed to be a result of volcanoes whose craters 
were extinct ages upon ages before man appeared 
on earth. Secondary causes were at work, under 
the direction of a First, in the nucleus of the moon, 
in the shape of volcanoes, which formed these 
mountains. Through the rapid cooling of the 
moon's crust which collapsed on the fiery fluid, 
the molten mass escaped from the interior to the 
surface and formed those accumulated elevations, 
called in the language of astronomy, ^* mountains 
of the moon." 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 8i 

The moon, as recorded by Moses, is a great 
light, because it reflects a great light. In calling 
it a great light, Moses addressed his language to 
our intellects through our senses. What the moon 
is, relative to us, belongs to vision; ^what it is, 
relative to itself, belongs to scientific investigation. 

My vision conveys to my mind the idea that 
the surface of the moon is not more than three 
feet in diameter. If I form this idea into a judg- 
ment, give it expression and act upon it, I allo^w 
myself to be deceived by my sense of vision. The 
deception results from assigning a false province 
to my vision which has only to deal with the 
externalities, or the form and color of the object. 
It follows, therefore, that since the modifications 
of an object or thing belong to our senses and its 
intrinsic qualities to investigation, Moses was not 
wrong when he called the moon a great light, 
n^otwithstanding the judgment of infidels to the 
contrary. 

It has been stated already, and astronomy 
attests the truth of the same, that the moon has 
no atmosphere. If it had, then it could not be a 
reflector, for the reason that its aqueous clouds 
would shut out the sun's light and that which is 
called in astronomy ** earth shine,'' and hence, the 
Divine Architect, for man's benefit, denied it an 
atmosphere. 

Without devoting any more space to an exam- 
ination of the lunar surface, it is safe to assert, 
because true, that dark shadows, painful gloom, 



82 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

forbidding darkness, bleak valleys, rocky cliffs, 
threatening precipices and a death-like silence 
render the queen of night a repulsive, blighted 
wilderness to the vision of astronomers. But I 
must say something more of Dear Mother Earth. 

Our planet, as we have seen, was suspended in 
space during indefinite periods, beautiful in its 
solitude, after its fiery center viras confined by its 
crust, as were its seas by their rock-bound shores, 
before man appeared upon its surface. During 
those long periods, under the supervision of the 
Eternal Word, plains and mountains arose out of 
the bosom of the deep, as if they were a second 
creation, while plants of marvelous hue came into 
being, which saluted the morning zephyrs and 
loaded them with perfumes to be offered to the 
Deity as thanksgiving offerings for the happiness 
and benefit of their creation. 

The numberless worlds, revolving in space^ 
gorgeous in beauty, resplendent in glory, and 
bound to each other by the force of invisible 
attraction, smiled benignantly on man, primal 
man, upon being placed on the earth by his Creator. 
Clothed with natural and supernatural raiment, 
he was lovely beyond conception, because he was 
next to the angels, pure essences, in glory, beauty 
and intelligence, lord of all he surveyed, the 
familiar friend of his Creator, and the admiration 
of angelic hosts. From these considerations are 
evidenced the love and benignity of the Deity 
towards man. If the moon were a self-luminous 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 83 

body, its proximity to the earth would destroy 
animal and vegetable life. If it were non-reflecting, 
then, during night we would be enveloped in 
partial darkness; but being a ^^ great light,'' it 
displays God's goodness and love towards His 
children, many of whom see Him through the 
force of His light. In lutnine tuo videbimus lumen, 
**In thy light we shall see light."* Then, the sun 
and moon were made for the benefit of the earth, 
and it for man's benefit. Yes, this is true. Why, 
then, do not all men reflect on this ? Why is it 
that many, very many deny not only this truthful 
theory, but even God's existence ? Because they 
are destitute of spiritual vision. But why did the 
Eternal Word make the sun, the moon, the stars 
and the earth for the benefit of man who abides 
on the earth ? Because of His love for man, whom 
He made after His own image and likeness. In 
what is man like to God ? In his soul, which is a 
simple, spiritual being, and therefore, immortal. 
Then, the human soul will never die ? Never. As 
the human soul is a simple, spiritual entity, it will 
always exist. Through an endless eternity, it will 
either enjoy happiness or suffer pain. The duty, 
then, devolves upon mankind to know, love and 
serve God in this life, that they may enjoy happi- 
ness in the invisible world. 

The sixth body of our solar system is Mars. 
This planet is 139,312,226 miles distant from the 
sun. Mars, like the moon, is a reflector, and is 

* Ps., 35- 



8 4 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

said to have an atmosphere, but I doubt the truth 
of the assertion. Its distance from the sun 
removes the supposition that it is inhabited. Of 
its chemistry, little is known beyond vague con- 
jecture. On its surface nothing can be seen to 
indicate animal or vegetable existence. Like the 
moon, it is a barren, dreary waste. 

The seventh bodyof our system is Jupiter, which 
is distant from the sun 475,693,149 miles. The 
equatorial circumference of this planet, which may 
be tohvi and hohUy an unorganized nebula, or a 
waste of water, is 250,000 miles. Jupiter is 
attended by four satellites, and accomplishes his 
orbitual revolution in about 11 years and 217 
days. His axial motion is 25 times more rapid 
than that of the earth. The extent of his diameter 
(88,390 miles), makes him fourteen hundred times 
larger than the earth. From these, the velocity of 
motion and huge bulk of this body can be con- 
ceived. Although this planet is said to have an 
atmosphere, yet, owing to its awful distance 
from the sun, it is not inhabited. 

Saturn is the next body of our system, and is 
distant from the sun nine hundred millions of 
miles. This planet performs its revolution around 
the sun in twenty-nine years and a half. The 
dimensions of Saturn are very little less than those 
of Jupiter. On the rings of this planet I will not 
dilate, for the reason that nothing definite is 
known of them, and, perhaps, never will. 

This planet is so distant from the sun that it is 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. Sj 

not inhabited with human beings. As a mark of 
Saturn's imperial greatness, eight satellites revolve 
around him, as does the moon around the earth. 
Should the reader desire to know more of Saturn, 
his rings, their chemistry, and of the satellites that 
are in attendance on him, he must have recourse 
to some good work on astronomy. Although the 
subject is sublime, yet the nature and object of my 
work do not allow me to treat it in detail. 

Uranus, a member of our solar system, is dis- 
tant from the sun 1,753,851,050 miles. This 
planet is waited upon by four satellites. The 
diameter of Uranus is said to be four times that of 
the earth. It is hard to assert that it has an 
atmosphere; if it have, its disk must be covered 
with perpetual snow. To assert that it is inhab- 
ited would be stupid nonsense. 

Neptune, the last body of our solar system, is 
2,746,271,232 miles distant from the sun. The 
diameter of this planet is four and a half times 
that of the earth's, while its orbitual motion is 
12,000 miles per hour. This planet is attended by 
one satellite, and is not inhabited by human 
beings. 

Outside the bodies of our solar system, and 
adjacent to the Pleiades, or in the plane next to 
them, is the Galaxy, or Milky Way. This dense 
stratum of stars, which branches into two divis- 
ions, is the nearest nebula to our solar system, 
and is believed by some astronomers to be *^ self- 
balancing," but this is not true, because it argues 



86 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

that the forceandcontinuity of gravitation, which 
bind body to body in the sidereal heavens were 
fractured, or ceased to be universally active. 
Throughout the widespread heavens, as far as the 
telescope can penetrate, bodies manifest depend- 
ence on each other, satellites on planets, planets 
on suns, and suns on First Power— -God, who reg- 
ulates their motion by fixed laws. 

Astronomy teaches that the Milky Way is a 
zone of bodies or stars which occupy space to the 
extent of 1,299,733,800,000,000 miles in diame- 
ter, and 4,479,068,300,000,000,000 miles in cir- 
cumference. Of this awful expanse of space, who 
can form an idea, who can set limits to it ? How^ 
omnipotent is the Eternal Word who filled this 
expanse of space with material bodies ! 

Let us reason for a moment. A billion is a 
million of millions, and a trillion is the product of 
a million involved to the third power. Now, no 
human being that ever lived could count a trillion. 
A trillion could not be counted in less than nine 
thousand years. Then, how omnipotent must 
First Power be, that formed those vast, multi- 
tudinous bodies which fill and spangle immensur- 
able space! And yet, some benighted, tiny ani-* 
malculae in the persons of agnostics, materialists 
or positivists will have the effrontery to dethrone 
Christianity, to deify matter and to crown despair, 
by their denial of God's existence. They want us 
to participate in their degradation by paying 
supreme adoration to blind, insensible, brute 



The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds. 87 

matter; but we can not, because our minds, 
through the marvelous light of reason and faith, 
intuitively see that God exists, and that, as He is 
infinitely just, He will reward the good and pun- 
ish the wicked during eternity. If those so-called 
philosophers possessed a glimmer of right reason 
or true science, they would see and acknowledge 
that that which could not mould or form itself 
into any shape, could not form the stars, suspend 
them in space and impart luminosity to them. 

On the physical constitution of those bodies, 
outside our own earth, astronomy cannot say 
much with any degree of certainty, owing to their 
immense distance from us and the complex nature 
of their elements. It can say, however, that they 
are obedient to law and order, to a mathematical 
nicety! that many of them are nebulous masses, 
which have been misrepresented by some astrono- 
mers in their hasty observations, and that, 
although, they have some chemical elements in 
common with our earth, yet that they are not 
inhabited with human beings. I am aware that 
this conclusion will not be accepted by those 
w^ho reason on speculation, but this will not 
invalidate it. 

One astronomer whom I consulted on this ques- 
tion says: *' There is no doubt that the sun, moon 
and stars are inhabited. Creative wisdom could 
adapt the being to its situation, as fishes in the 
seas and fowls in the air are adapted to theirs.'' 
This sort of theorizing is simply vapid, if not 



88 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

foolish. According to this man's philosophy, ^ve 
must assume that everybody in space, outside our 
earth, is inhabited. How can we prove this 
assumption? Can human beings, or creatures 
endowed wth animal life, exist on the surface of 
the sun that is robed in a mantle of fierce flame? 
*Can animal life subsist on the disk of the moon 
which has no atmosphere? Can or could animal 
beings withstand the cold of Jupiter that is 900 
degrees below^ our zero? The argument of this 
man is that, because ** fishes live in the seas and 
fowls in the air'', therefore, the sun, moon and 
stars are inhabited. The therefore I do not accept > 
because it is falsely deduced. 

The man who scientifically asserts that the 
celestial bodies are inhabited with human beings, 
asserts what he cannot prove. How can he prove 
what science disproves. The science of astronomy 
teaches that matter is scattered, poised and con- 
trolled by Power throughout penetrable space, 
but is not inhabited except our little earth, which 
is only a speck in creation. Time and again, it 
has been asked, *^If Venus have an atmosphere, 
why is she not inhabited ? " Why is not the desert 
of Sahara which embraces an area of two million 
square miles inhabited ? Why is not the desert of 
Central Australia, which has an area of one mill- 
ion square miles, inhabited? Why are four-fifths 
of our planet an expanse of water? Why are 
there so many mountain fastnesses? Why has 
not the moon an atmosphere, and why is Jupiter 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 8g 

SO distant from the sun ? Those questions are as 
rational as the foregoing one. 

Again, it has been asked: ''If the bodies in 
space are not inhabited, why were they formed ? 
God formed and poised them in space to spangle 
the entrance to His unseen Kingdom, our final 
home, unless we disinherit ourselves by sin unto 
death. The formation of our solar system, neces- 
sitated that of star systems, that gravity might 
have a continuous plane to act upon. But does 
not this argue that God was forced to create and 
form those shining spheres and man? No. God 
was free in His creative and formative activity. 
The word, necessitated, I use in a restricted sense. 
Outside of God, there was no power that could 
force Him to create. God was infinitely happy in 
the enjoyment and contemplation of His divine 
perfections throughout eternity. In the enjoy- 
ment of His attributes He did not need rational 
beings, but they, once created, needed Him, in as 
much as the finite has to depend on the Infinite for 
present and future happiness. 

Now if our earth were hung in space as near to 
the sun as is Venus, Mercury, or Vulcan, it would 
be a molten mass, and if it were as distant from 
him as are Mars and Jupiter, its surface would be 
covered with perpetual frost and snow. Under 
these circumstances scientifically true, how can 
any man, in his senses, assert that the planets and 
satellites of our solar system are inhabited with 
human beings ? How can he either assert that the 



go The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

star systems are inhabited ? On what will he base 
his assertion? The certainty that our earth is 
inhabited we all admit on the testimony of sense 
and reason. And through the force of the same, 
we admit that, as it has been our cradle, so will it 
be our grave. These, then, being admitted, let us 
cast a passing glance at the workings of its inhab- 
itants, before their bodies are consigned to its 
silent keeping, and before their souls wing their 
flight to the invisible world. But first, let us con- 
sider their origin and the object the Almighty had 
in view in calling them into existence. 

So soon as the earth was ripe for man to abide 
upon, God created him. *^And God said: Let us 
make man to our image and likeness. ... And 
God created man to His own image; to the image 
of God he created him; male and female he created 
them/^^ The creation of man was the result of 
the Divine activity on the sixth day, and a most 
sublime result it was, for in no other being, except 
man, in the whole universe can the image of God 
be found. Owing to the absence of this image, 
which is spiritual, the bodies in space are uncon- 
scious of their being, and hence only reflect the 
glory of their Creator, while man ofiers to Him 
praise and adoration. 

After the Divine Mind surveyed the works of 
creation, they were pronounced good, except man, 
who was good as regarded his physical compon- 
ent. Why was not complex man pronounced good 

* Gen. i, 26, 27. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, gi 

after he was created? Because he was on proba- 
tion, and could not be pronounced good until his 
probationary term ended. As man was a rational, 
dependent creature, he had no right to his creation, 
and hence, to impress on his intellect the dignity 
of his being, the value of the creative act that 
called him into existence, and the necessity to look 
up to and lean upon his Creator, he was put on 
probation. He was also placed on probation that 
he might learn, in as much as he was a limited 
being, that he had to depend on his Creator for a 
continuance of the life he enjoyed. Here it will be 
asked: *^ What was the nature of his probation?*' 
Obedience to the command he received from God. 
It may be asked again, for infidelity is more prone 
to ask questions than to answer ones put to it: 
**What was the nature of this command?'' Not 
to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree in the garden 
of Paradise. But yet again, it may be queried: 
** Did he disobey this command?" He did, and the 
act deprived him of original justice, by destroying 
sanctifying grace which submitted his soul to God. 
It did more, it entailed on him and on his posterity 
a series of misfortunes which afflict the human 
family, and will so continue to the end of time. It 
entangled him and his posterity in the meshes of 
sin, and was the cause of the depravity of the 
world of man, which is opposed to the kingdom 
of God. By disobeying the command, he allowed 
his will, over which he had control, being a free 
agent, to deflect from the Divine Will. He willed 



g2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

that which the Creator did not want him to will. 
He desired to know what was above his nature; 
he wished to acquire a knowledge that belonged 
to God, and those resulting from pride, induced 
him to eat of the forbidden fruit. 

^^Now," said an agnostic, with whom I had a 
controversy on this and many other questions, 
*^ If I admit that Adam had a soul, I do not see 
how he could be held responsible for the act of his 
will, which was the servant of his soul. Certainly, 
you (I) will grant that the act of the servant is 
not that of the master, and therefore, that the act 
of Adam's will was not chargeable to him.'' 

The fallacy of this so-called reasoning will be 
seen at a glance, from the fact that the parity is 
not admissible. As the master and servant are 
two distinct beings, they are individually account- 
able for their actions. If the servant do a wrong 
deed, he himself, and not his master, is held 
accountable by the revealed and civil laws. It is 
not true that the human ^will is the servant of the 
soul. I cannot any more form an idea of the 
human soul devoid of will-force, than I can of 
matter without form, or of sound without a 
medium of transmission. As the human w^ill is a 
faculty of the soul, it follows that the soul is 
responsible for its evil choice. This conclusion is 
further deduced from the fact that there can be no 
action of the will till reason suggests the motive 
of action. The duty of the intellect is to enlighten 
the will as faith does reason, and this it does, 



The Visible mid Invisible Worlds. gj 

when it is not depraved. If it be, so is the will, 
and hence, its evil choice. 

Agnostics deny that the ** depravity of the 
world of man resulted from Adam's sin.'* If it 
did not, then, from what else? As an effect, it 
must have a cause. Will they point out this to us ? 
They further deny that the " sin of Adam affected 
his posterity ; that, if there be a God, He would 
be unjust to punish them (agnostics) for crime 
their parents committed.'' 

If the Almighty punished them or any one else 
for crime their parents committed, He would be 
unjust ; but He does not punish the innocent ; on 
the contrary, He rewards them. Between the 
formal sin of an individual and the disobedience 
of primal man there is no parity, although the 
former is rooted in the latter. When a person 
commits a crime, its punishment affects himself 
only, while the sin of Adam affected his posterity 
who existed in him as do effects in their causes. 

In the physical order we know that a corrupt 
cause will produce a corrupt effect. It must be 
evident to every honest, thinking man, that the 
outlets from a stagnant pond are of the same 
nature as the source from which they flow, and 
hence, that the human family, except the Immacu- 
late Virgin, were tainted with the sin of their 
primogenitor, Adam. The Blessed Virgin was 
exempt by a special act of the Eternal Word, who 
was in subsequent ages to be bom of her. If she 
came under the curse of original sin, then, the 



g4- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Eternal assumed his humanity from a sinful source, 
a blasphemy hateful to Christian instincts. To 
disprove this truthful reasoning, my agnostics 
introduced the freedom of the human will, 
** which,'' according to their system of so-called 
philosophy, '^renders the individual unaccountable 
for his actions." As will be seen at a glance, this 
pernicious theory, which is not new^, for it was a 
fundamental principle of Nosticism that induced 
the fifth persecution, contains the germ of anarchy 
and socialism. 

Now, the freedom of the human will does not 
at all convey the idea that man can do as he 
pleases. As man is a complex being, he owes 
allegiance to God and legitimately constituted 
authority, and therefore, by his very nature, must 
submit his will to the inexorable dominion of law. 
The human will, from its office, is bound to w411 
good for the intellect, in the same way as the 
intellect is bound to supply the soul with good 
which is its food. 

The right to violate the laws of God and 
society does not exist in the freedom of the human 
will. "When they are violated, the act is rebellion 
against God and society, and results from the 
erroneous judgment of the intellect which misleads 
the will. In its broadest sense, the essence of human 
liberty consists in the faculty of the individual to 
do as he pleases, but before he determines to act, 
he is bound to examine the nature of the act by 
the light of reason and religion, and if he detect 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, pj* 

evil in it, he must restrain the action of his will. 
As evil is the privation of good, it is the duty of 
the intellect to admonish the v^ill of its destructive 
nature; but it does not always do this, because 
some intellects are spiritually blind, and hence do 
not see the enormity of the evil their will pursues. 

In the course of a public controversy I had ^th 
agnostics, evolutionists and materialists, the fol- 
lowing question was put to me, which I insert 
here, with its reply, for the benefit of my non- 
Catholic readers. *^When God made man, why 
did He not make him perfect, and since He did not, 
why did He not frame a law for his guidance? " 
In controversy infidels put questions that are not 
only irreligious but irrational. Their systems are 
so averse to the current and general sentiments of 
true religion that Christians turn away from them 
in disgust. If their systems be true, why did not 
** nature, chance or matter acting on matter," 
make primal man perfect, and why did they not 
** frame a law for his guidance ? '' But those ques- 
tions infidels will not answer when put to them. 
They are, indeed, flippant to deny, but slow to 
prove. This I have found out by experience. 

We have already seen that when God created 
man. He made him perfect, and that He clothed 
him in the superb raiment of natural and super- 
natural good, which constituted his original jus- 
tice. Now, as Adam enjoyed an existence which 
he could not give himself, he was bound to obey, 
to serve and to love the Giver of this gift, whose 



g6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

grace was his spiritual center, his life, his light, his 
happiness and his joy. If he acted in obedience to 
the inspirations of this holy center ; if he allowed 
his will to be led by its sweet, attractive force, he 
would have retained his original innocence and the 
friendship of his Creator, but he did not. Through 
the abuse of his will, he lost God's friendship and 
original justice which could not abide in his 
sinful soul. It follows, therefore, that since God 
made primal man perfect, his imperfections, which 
resulted from the abuse of his will, must not be 
attributed to the Creator, but to original sin, or 
to Adam's act of disobedience. If Adam went 
through his probationary period without offend- 
ing his Creator, he could flap his wings in the con- 
tinued enjoyment of the gifts of nature and grace, 
which were bestowed upon him by the Eternal 
Word, and have transmitted them to his posterity. 

Evil, as atheists, agnostics and materialists 
attempt to prove, neither existed in the command 
Adam received nor in the fruit of the forbidden 
tree. Then, from what did it result? From the 
non-conformity of the created to the Uncreated 
Will, or from the evil choice of Adam. 

Infidelity asks: **Why did God endue Adam 
with free will?'' If rational man had not the free- 
dom of his will he would not be human. We can- 
not form a conception of angels devoid of free 
will. It is through the freedom of their wills that 
they love and serve God ; it is through this force 
that they obey Him. Freedom of action is abso- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. g7 

lutely necessary in rational beings, because from 
it results merit or demerit, proportioned to the 
observance or non-observance of the laws that 
govern them. Not only is the human will sub- 
jected to law, but every particle of matter that 
entered into the formation of bodies in space; 
every body in space ; every plant, tree and shrub 
in the vegetable kingdom, and every creature in 
the animal, from the insect that sports in the sun- 
beam to the lion that roams through the forest. 
The myriads of animals that came into existence 
during the long days or cycles of geological 
history, came under the influence of law. The 
fish that sported in the Paleozoic seas, the reptiles 
that crawled on the earth during the Mesozoic 
period, came under the influence of law. Motion 
in the heavens above and on the earth below, is 
subject to law. Law is heaven's first order. So 
soon as man appeared on earth, he came under 
the dominion of a law that was outlined on his 
soul, and, in his natural state, it was his primor- 
dial light. In conformity with the requirements 
of this law he was bound to act ; but he did not, 
he opposed his will to its attractive force which 
inclined him to his Center, to God, in whom, alone, 
he could find rest, joy and happiness. Through 
the light of pure reason alone, primal man could 
see the intrinsic good which existed in obedience 
to his Creator, but he shut the eyes of his intellect 
against the glare of this light, and hence, he fell. 
How many in the world of man induce a similar 



g8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

darkness, ^which prevents them from seeing or 
finding God. Thej not only shut out from their 
souls the light of pure reason, but that of true 
religion, and say with the fool, there is no God. 

Adam did not only shut out from his soul the 
light of pure reason, but also the gifts of the Holy 
Ghost. Thenceforth, because of the deprivation 
of these gifts, his intellect ^svas darkened and his 
v^ill was ^weakened, so much so, that he could no 
longer view nature or grace, the spiritual and 
physical worlds from the center of the circle. No, 
indeed, he had to go to its circumference, and even 
there, his vision was v^eak and small. From the 
consequences that resulted from his act of dis- 
obedience, we can form an idea of the malice of 
mortal sin. 



CHAPTER III. 

The Systems of Atheists, Pantheists, Agnos- 
tics, PosiTiYisTs, Freethinkers, Evolution- 
ists, Socialists and Communists. 

Atheistic^ philosophy teaches that *Hhe universe 
is an eflfect produced by nature, ^cNrhich is eternal 
and immutable; that the human mind is the pro- 
duct of the brain's activity; that the instinct of 
animals, the formation of minerals and the prop- 
erties of rock, are a result of natural development; 
that this is the result of the property of matter 
and the inherent principle which is the basis of 
matter; that all causes are nothing more than 
matter influencing matter; that there is no God, 
no Creator in nature and that nature needs no 
God.'^t 

To bring sense out of those intellectual perver- 
sions, the words nature and matter, must be sub- 
stituted for God. If matter have inherent in it 
creative and formative energy, then, vre can say 
with Spinoza that everything in the universe is 
God influencing God. 

We have already seen that the term, nature, 
embraces all the beings in the cosmos and the laws 
that govern them, and hence, that it is neither 

* Gr., Alpha ^ negative, and Theos^ God, 

t Atkins. 99 



lOO The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

eternal nor immutable. If it were it would be a 
necessary Being, but as it is only the aggregate of 
limited entities, it is limited, and therefore did not 
produce the universe. The human mind is not any 
more the product of the brain's action, than the 
atmosphere is the product of the earth's orbitual 
motion. 

The human brain, the root of the nervous sys- 
tem and the principal dwelling place of the soul, 
has distinct parts and sundry functions to 
perform. Through its elongation down the spine, 
we move from place to place ; through its sensorial 
nerves we experience sensation and through itself 
we reason. Does the force that produces these 
actions exist inherently in the brain, or are they 
communicated to it ? They do not exist inherently 
in the brain, because it is a mass of matter with- 
out vitality or thinking force. It is the soul that 
imparts life and the power of thinking to it. 
When Ave say the brain thinks and reasons, we 
mean the soul. The dualism, then, of the human 
brain, is mind and matter. The essence of the 
former is spiritual, while that of the latter is 
material. The former directs the body, the latter, 
as a part of the whole, obeys its commands. If 
the human mind evolved from the brain, and the 
brain from nature, then, as an effect, it is superior 
to its cause. It is superior to its cause, for the 
reason that it can think; that it can receive 
impressions from the world of sense ; that it can 
utilize some of the forces of nature and that it 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, loi 

can fabricate things out of pre-existing material, 
which nature cannot do. I therefore, deduce the 
conclusion that the universe is not an effect pro- 
duced by nature, and that the human mind is not 
the product of the brain's activity, but that they 
are a result of Omnipotent Power. 

It may be admitted that mineral and rock are 
a result of natural force, but it cannot be admitted 
that matter has any inherent principle for its 
basis, except its essence on which its various forms 
rest, while itself has to depend on its Creator for a 
continuance of its being. As this is the philosophy 
of right reason, it is intrinsically true. 

The system of Pantheists (paz?, all, and theos^ 
God) teaches that ^Hhe universe, as a whole, is 
God; that the forces of nature and the laws mani- 
fested in the universe are a part of God; that the 
universe, the forces of nature and the la^ws of the 
universe emanated from the Divine Mind which 
filled with different degrees of consciousness the 
depths and heights of the universe; that God is 
everywhere seen; that he alone is; that there is 
only one intelligence in God, man, beast and mat- 
ter; that everything except God is a passing 
illusion, and that evil does not exist.'' 

The reader will see at a glance that this spacious 
'* philosophy " is not superior to that of material- 
ism or atheism. According to this system, there 
is no God, except a material one, who is no God at 
all. It is strange that Pantheists cannot perceive 
or apprehend the conserving, governing Power 



102 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

that binds the cosmos into a grand and sublime 
organized whole. It is inexplicable to my mind, 
why this creative, conserving and governing 
Power should be reduced to the condition of a 
limited being by Pantheists. 

The universe, as a whole, is not God, but is a 
mass of diversified matter which exists in various 
conditions under various modifications, and as 
such is a result of Primary Causation. The forces 
of nature and the laws of the universe are not 
God either. They came into time for the direc- 
tion of matter, and hence are not primary, but 
secundary or contingent^ 

We have already seen that the creation of the 
universe could not be an emanation from the 
divine Mind, or a part of it, because God is simple 
being, a pure spirit, a most pure act, and therefore, 
does not admit of increase or diminution. Cre- 
ation v^as the coming forth of possible existence 
to actual, by an act of the omnipotent, divine 
Will. God, hj His eternal Word, made all things,* 
and by His Unbegotten Son, made the world, fin 
which he is, but no part of it, through His con- 
serving energy. To His eyes, all things are naked 
and open. I By His essence God is everywhere 
present. *' Whither shall I go from thy spirit ? or 
whither shall I flee from thy face ? If I ascend into 
heaven, thou art there ; if I descend into hell, thou 
art present ; (that is, by His justice,) if I take my 

* Wis., ix, I. 
t Hebr., i, 3. 
J Ibid^ iv, 13. 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds, 103 

wings earl^^ in the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
most parts of the sea, even there also shall thy 
hand lead me ; and thy right hand shall hold me. ''"* 
To say the least, that system is vapid, indeed, 
which teaches '*that the divine Mind fills vdth 
different degrees of consciousness the depths and 
the heights of theuniveise. But the nature of this 
consciousness pantheists do not tell us. We are 
left to a conjecture, v/hich does not at all impress 
our minds with the truth of their system. The 
Infinite Mind did not endow a particle of matter 
in the universe with consciousness. The conscious- 
ness of the universe consists in the omni-presence 
of its Creator, who is constantly energizing in it 
according to the necessity of His eternal reason. 
If any degree of consciousness were imparted to 
the universe, it would have an immortal, thinking 
soul, but it has not, because it is only brute matter 
clothed with various forms. No being in the 
universe is conscious of its actions except man. 
He alone is conscious of his actions, whether 
internal or external; he alone can determine 
whether his actions are right or wrong. Con- 
sciousness is the knowledge of mental operations ; 
it is an act of the human mind which makes 
known its inv^ard object. I am conscious that I 
am refuting the inane, vapid theory of pantheists, 
and, out of this certainty no one can argue me. 
Animals, even, are not conscious of their actions, 
because devoid of reasoning power. The actions 

a Ps. 138, 7. 



104- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

of some, which approximate to reason, result from 
the world of sense, and not from a rational source. 

It was the extreme of folly for pantheists to 
assert that ^' God alone is." When my pantheistic 
opponent asserted that God alone is, I asked him, 
if he himself were not, and he replied that ^^he was 
only a shadow, a passing illusion. '^ And this 
shadow and this passing illusion was a teacher in 
one of our high schools ! What w^onder is it that 
the majority of the youth of our country are 
becoming indoctrinated in infidelity, when such 
men are placed over our institutions of learning. 
But our country is liberal. Yes, it is very liberal, 
and its liberality in this respect, is a flight from 
God to material paganism. 

That I am not a *^ passing illusion'* I know 
from the consciousness of my soul which gives me 
the certainty that I am, think, will and act, and 
that I am the efiicient cause of what I do, think 
and will, but not of myself; that, as I could not 
be my own cause, I must be an eifect from a First 
Cause — God, on whom I have to depend for a con- 
tinuance of the life I enjoy, and therefore, that I 
am not a *^ passing illusion, '* but real existence; a 
complex being, composed of body and soul and 
made to the image of God. How, then, can the 
human mind, acting on such a plane, and cog- 
nizant of its actions, be called a *' passing illusion." 
Ah ! how naked, how wretched, how dark and 
dreary does the ** science " of pantheism appear to 
the Christian mind, when stripped of its flimsy 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 105 

gauze by true philosophy. In the so-called philos- 
ophy of atheists and pantheists, all one can see is, 
unreasonable negation, wld, foolish assertion and 
a horror for the holy term — God. It is strange 
that men who claim to be learned, should view the 
Almighty and His works ad extra, with such 
distorted, mental vision. But so it is. 

To assert that evil does not exist, is as silly as 
is the assertion that ^^ there is only one intelligence 
in God, man, beast and matter.'' Evil, as an 
entity, does not exist, but as a deflection of the 
human will from the divine, it does, and to this 
truth the depravity of the world of man testifies, 
for in this it is rooted. 

Agnostics are a class of ^^philosophers,'' who 
blindly plunge into bewildering absurdities. This 
class of modern ^^ scientists," admit of nothing 
that is insensible, and hence, reject the super- 
natural. In controversy they are the most insen- 
sate I have ever met. Their mental vision is so 
dark and distorted that, one wonders why they 
attempt to disprove the supernatural, but what 
will not effrontery attempt. When obliged to 
confront a Christian antagonist, instead of argu- 
ment they hurl at him such terms as ^^ Jesuit, 
Inquisition and Romish." But as this mode of 
argument is not convincing, they seek comfort in 
growls and scowls, which indicate defeat resulting 
from an irreligious theory. 

Now, through the light of reason have not 
agnostics acquired the certainty that they think ? 



io6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

Did thotight ever come tinder the action of sense ? 
No. In what is thought rooted ? Is it in matter? 
No. In what else? In the soul from which it pro- 
ceeds as does an effect from its cause. But, because, 
agnostics do not touch, see and scent their souls, 
they deny that they have any. The denial 
amounts to nothing. Brute matter does not think, 
and hence, there is in man a thinking principle, 
which is conscious of its actions, and this is the 
human soul. Agnostics admit that matter exists. 
Now, did the essence of matter, which is insensible, 
ever come under the action of their senses? No. 
And yet, by a blind process of reasoning, they 
deny their o^wn admission. Positivists sail in the 
same leaky ship as do agnostics. Those so-called 
philosophers deny every thing, except natural 
phenomena. Inquiry into causation they do not 
make, because, if they did, it w^ould force them to 
admit a First Cause. Like agnostics, they are 
harmless and are to be pitied, more than to be 
blamed. 

Free-thinkers are the next class of infidels, who 
claim absolute freedom of intellect from all object- 
ive authority whether of teachers themselves', or 
of dogmas. They further claim absolute individu- 
alism which ignores revealed religion, a Church 
divinely founded, the fall of man and his redemp- 
tion. Logically viewed, this system demonstrates 
that it is intellectual lawlessness and self-deifica- 
tion. It further proves that the fallen angels could 
not devise anything more destructive of religion 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds. 107 

and society than this hydra which Christian 
society throttles wherever it raises its head in this 
fair countr3\ With the foregoing can be classed 
evolutionists, whose frenzied intellects want ns to 
grant that we are the offspring of a dirty beast. 
I once had an argument with an evolutionist on 
this very subject, who dragged me into embryol- 
og3\ I asked my embryologist whence the source 
of the primal rudiments of organized being in the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms, and he said that 
'^ science did not get that far yet/' 

I shall, here, place before my readers the system 
of rationalists vsrhich ignores the supernatural. 
Rationalists assert, but fail to prove, that, ^^as no 
evidence, except human, can be discovered in the 
Bible, its claim to inspiration must be rejected, 
and with its claim, itself Although they pass 
this judgment on the Word of God, yet they intro- 
duce passages from it which are difficult to 
explain, in order to invalidate its teaching. Either 
through ignorance or dishonesty, they ignore the 
fact that reason does not extend its dominion 
over all things, and hence, that the acquisition of 
supernatural knowledge is not^thin its sphere of 
action. Its office is to accept the supernatural, or 
whatever has been revealed on the authority of 
God w^ho revealed it. 

A rationalist, instead of making good use of 
his reason, abuses it; he uses it for the vile pur- 
pose of giving the lie to divine revelation, which is 
light to the Christian soul. The private judgment 



io8 The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds, 

of the rationalist, no matter how false it may be, 
is arbiter in all questions, whether natural or 
supernatural. He acts within a plane of his own 
formation, and on it enthrones his false, narrow 
views, which he cherishes in preference to the 
revealed law. Objective truths he rejects because 
his intellect was never illuminated by subjective 
ones, and hence, his theory is as unmeaning as it 
is false. On the whole, the rationalist makes him- 
self his own center around which all things must 
revolve; his own god, his own heaven and his own 
religion. 

The next branch of the infidel tree is socialism. 
The dominating principles of this system are that 
*^a new distinction of property and labor should 
be made and introduced into society; that all 
have an equal right to land, because it belongs to 
them inherently; that, if they be deprived of this, 
injustice is done to them, which they are bound to 
redress by physical force; that all men should 
labor under the influence and direction of public 
(socialistic) spirit and make an equal distribution 
of the product." 

If the teachings of this wild, irrational and irre- 
ligious system were carried out according to its 
spirit, the dismemberment of society would be the 
logical result. Anarchy and sensuality would 
reign supreme, instead of religion and morality, 
and our civilization would be chaotic. 

A new distribution of property is not in the 
nature of things, because opposed to the natural 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. log 

and revealed laws, which protect a man in his 
right to the possession and enjoyment of the fruits 
of his honest labor. It is not true that all men 
have an equal right to land. Those who are justly 
possessed of land, hold the same agreeable to the 
Yoiceof the natural, the revealed and the civil laws. 
According to the teaching of divine revelation, the 
earth belongs to God. *^ The earth and the pleni- 
tude thereof belong to God.'^^ But the earth and 
the plenitude thereof God gave to man, after He 
placed him upon it ; and this donation, like that 
of life, no one can unjustly infringe upon. If by 
my honest industry, I acquire a farm of ten 
thousand acres, no matter what may be its value, 
it is mine, and the man who takes it from me 
through brute force or any other unjust means, 
sins against justice. Although it is mine by way 
of a donation, yet it is not mine by virtue of my 
own creation. I did not any more create it than 
I did myself, and hence, it and myself belong to 
God. While I am on earth, I have the use and 
emolument of it, which I must devote to purposes 
prescribed by the natural, the revealed and the 
civil laws. If man called the earth into existence, 
if he were its creator, then, the human family, 
individually, could claim an equal portion of it, 
but as he did not, he is only a tenant in fee-tail, 
and therefore, his claim is unjust, and therefore, 
too, the system of socialism is intrinsically destruc- 
tive of religion, law and order. 

b Ps. xxiii. 



no The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

The assertion that, all men are socially equal 
is as false as the one refuted. All men are equal 
formally and by the force of their nature ; beyond 
these, inequality exists by a law of the Creator, 
T?\rho confers temporal and spiritual gifts on some 
T^hich He denies to others. There is between high 
and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned a 
social distance rightly acknowledged by society. 

In the external ^works of God, there is variety, 
from which results a sublimity that captivates our 
intellects. The celestial spheres differ from each 
other. Some are luminous, others are opaque, 
while no two of them are equal in magnitude. If 
all Avere of the same attractive force, their motion 
would cease, and then, one would impinge on the 
other, and the grand universe would be {tohu and 
bohu) reduced to chaos. How various are the 
forms of the clouds which are the result of the 
vaporization of the earth through the sun's heat. 
On this planet of ours, which is only a speck of 
creation, ^what a variety of entities in the animal 
and vegetable kingdoms. Can any one enumerate 
them? In accidental qualities, how different. In 
the world of man there is accidental difference, so 
conspicuous that atheists, agnostics and evolution- 
ists contemptuously smile at the credulity of 
Christianity v^hich accepts and enforces the doc- 
trine of the unity of the human race. Those so- 
called philosophers, in controversy with me, 
asserted that ^Hhere vvrere more primogenitors 
than one ; that the various shades of human com- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. ill 

plexion and the diflferential form of the skull prove 
the truth of this assertion, and therefore, that the 
Caucasian, the Mongolian and the African are 
the product of three different primogenitors/' 

This specious reasoning, no doubt, harmonizes 
with the philosophy of infidelity ; but not with 
that of Christianity. It is not true that there 
were three primogenitors ; but it is true that there 
was only one, Adam, who fell and whose fall 
affected his posterity. The various shades of the 
human complexion result from the influence of 
physical agencies incident to man's wandering 
over the surface of the globe. Those who emi- 
grated to tropical regions were bronzed, v^hile 
those who remained in temporate were white. The 
primitive type underwent, in many instances, 
accidental change from a too close blood admix- 
ture. Cleanliness, which results from civilization 
plays an active part in promoting a white com- 
plexion. If the Mongolian applied more soap and 
water to his face than he does, its copper shade 
would be less visible. ** Would soap and water 
applied to the face of an African, remove the dark- 
ness of his face, queried one of my antagonists ? " 
They w^ould not. The African, a child of God and 
a descendant of Adam, labors under the curse of 
Noe. ** Cursed be Chanaan, a servant of servants 
shall he be unto his brethren.''^ Thenceforth the 
descendents of Cham are believed to be black, as a 
mark of servitude. Through the force of this 

a Gen. ix, 23. 



112 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

belief, the Negro was enslaved, contrary to the 
protests of Christianity, 'which made all men free 
and brothers of the Incarnate Word. The greed 
of the world of man not only kept him in bondage, 
but reduced him to the condition of an irrational 
animal. Happily, now, in this fair country he is 
free, is being christianized and fitted for the duties 
he owes to society and religion. 

Now, as there are primaries in solar and star 
systems, so must there be in social, founded on a 
Christian basis. It must be conceded that society 
requires primaries, men imbued with religion, 
learning and morality for its direction. It must 
have men of wealth, also, otherwise its financial 
arteries would cease to pulsate. The channels of 
commerce demand mind and money which could 
not be obtained from a collective body acting on 
the same plane of equality. Religion demands 
humble and charitable exponents, with highly cul- 
tivated minds and an eminent standard of 
morality, which humanity, crazed by false philos- 
ophy, could not give it. The terms, religion, law 
and order would be empty and meaningless, indeed, 
if the vagaries of socialism prevailed. 

It is philosophically true that all men cannot 
be v^ealthy any more than bodies in space can be 
of the same magnitude. There are some who 
could not stand the prosperity of wealth, owing 
to evil habits v^^hich have become a second nature. 
There are others, and, they are many, who could 
not utilize wealth, owing to financial ignorance. 



TJie Visible and Invisible Worlds. iij 

Wealth as a force, to be usefully expended, requires 
intellect, which, as we shall see in the course of 
this work, must lean on labor. Labor and mind 
must go hand-in-hand into every financial trans- 
action. As both are united, as are the propositions 
of a sylogism they must respect each other. 

To socialism communism has added a supple- 
ment which proposes to abolish the relation of 
husband and wife, and the system of government 
founded on parental authority, sanctioned by the 
natural law and approved by the revealed. That 
this would be the destruction of morality, religion 
and society, is self-evident, for the reason that 
man's fallen nature, remote from the influence of 
religion and social order, is reducible to a purely 
animal state. 

What but the absence of true religion, has 
induced the loathsome, forbidding darkness that 
envelops Asia this day? Is not the bewildering 
combination of ignorance, vice and fetichism, 
which bestialize the great majority of its inhabit- 
ants, a result of this ? That bountifully enriched 
country, whose mountains are painted with the 
gorgeous tints of sun-shine, and whose vales flow 
with milk and honey — that lovely country which 
was the cradle of the human race, in which Noah 
planted his vineyard, and in which Moses con- 
versed with God and received the Ten Command- 
ments from Him — that charming country which 
was the birth-place of the Incarnate Word, and 
the scene of the Bloody Sacrifice of Mount Calvary, 



114- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

has \sranned in faith, in the light of true rehgion 
and in sound morality. The Polar frost of sin, of 
pagan abominations have made inroads upon it, 
plunged it into the embraces of disgusting 
idolatry. Jerusalem, the once holy city of God, 
swarms -with Mongolians, Jews and a motly host 
of other pagan nationalities, whose god is money 
and sensuality. Still lower in the scale of civiliza- 
tion are the savage tribes of Central Africa, while 
the Dongolese and Shangallas, who inhabit all the 
country west of Abysinia and south of Nubia, are 
purely and wholly animalized. The low, savage, 
filthy Chiluks, and Dinkas, who worship cows, 
can be classed with the Njams-Njams who roam 
through Zanzibar, Mozambique and along the 
banks of the Zambri river. The savages of Nyanza 
and those who dwell on the shores of Lake Vic- 
toria may be classified with those of Central 
Africa. These -with the Tartar tribes, who are 
brought up from childhood to be familiar with the 
shedding of human blood, give us a clear idea of 
what man would be remote from the influence of 
rehgion and society. To the degraded condition 
of these savage and paganized tribes infidelity is 
attempting to bring us, but its efforts are in vain, 
because the Christian intellect intuitively sees that 
the god which infidelity worships, in this country, 
is material paganism. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Was the first man a material growth?— Did 
HE institute society ?— Did it develop itself 
proportional to his development ?— Did God 

INSTITUTE SOCIETY ?— PATERNAL SOCIETY.— ThE 

Theocracy —Its rejection — Political so- 
ciety — Its source — Political power — Its 
SOURCE— The divine right of kings. 
The philosophy of infidelity teaches that 
*^ primal man originated from matter; that he 
grew out of the earth as did trees, shrubs and 
plants; that, after having traveled around the 
circle of life he returns to nothing, as do beings of 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms, and that, 
from the nature of his origin, governmental 
authority is inherent in him/' 

One ^would scarcely believe that a crude, irra- 
tional theory like this would be advanced and 
defended by educated men, who are respectable 
members of society. But, nevertheless, to my own 
knowledge, and to that of a collective body of 
human beings, the majority of whom are still liv- 
ing to testify to the truth of my statement, such 
is the case. And what is more, many of this same 
body seemed to accept this theory, and appeared 

dejected when its fallacy was exposed. 

115 



Xi6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

Now, I would as soon admit the unscientific 
assertion that solids are not convertible into 
liquids ; that air does not expand by heat ; that a 
cube, a circle and an ellipse are of the same mathe- 
matical value, as to admit that dead matter pro- 
duced and formed our primogenitor, Adam. I have 
already proved that matter could not any more 
produce and form the human body and soul, than 
it could itself. This was the work of an omnip- 
otent Being, whom Christians call God. 

Of all beings in the whole expanse of the uni- 
verse, there is not one, whose formation is so 
complicated as is that of man. In the world of 
pure animality there is but one component, and in 
the world of inanimate bodies, there is but one, 
because the varieties are reducible to a material 
basis. Cansuchbesaidof man? No. He is complex. 
Within his body there is a living, thinking, active, 
immortal soul, that is conscious of its existence, of 
its actions and knows itself through these. Can this 
sublime being, who is the completion of the crea- 
tive series, who is capable of contemplating the 
sublimity of creation and its omnipotent First 
Cause, be the work of brute matter? Can this 
glorious entity, whose geographical range is the 
earth's surface, whose intellect utilizes the forces 
of nature, be the *^ product of matter acting on 
matter?'* Can this wonderful being, whose organ- 
ization makes him the child of God, whose 
redemption makes him a brother of the Incarnate 
Word, a prince in material creation and a citizen 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds, iiy 

of the heavenly Jerusalem, be the work of nature 
or chance? Can man, whose head is crowned with 
the radiant crown of reason, through the exercise 
of which he can apprehend the existence of the 
Deity and trace the fire of His love throughout the 
habitable globe, be the work of dead matter ? 
No, indeed. Could brute matter endue man with 
mental faculties immeasurably above animal 
instinct ? Do the delicacy of his structure, the per- 
fection of his organization, his conscience, his will- 
force, his power of speech, his power of reflection, 
his power of clothing his thoughts in the raiment 
of fine language, and his whole outer and inner 
being, result from dead matter? No. That primal 
man was not a material growth I learn from 
divine revelation, which says: ^^And the Lord 
God formed man of the slime of the earth : {apo 
tes ges) and breathed into his face the breath of 
life, {nepbesb bayya) and man became a living 
soul.''* 

The following, which erroneously treats this 
glorious dogma of Christian faith, I copied from 
a monthly journal, entitled The Microcosm, and 
published in New York by Wilford Hall. 

** When God created man, He breathed into him 
a portion of His own spiritual essence, and man 
became a living being, possessing animal, intellect- 
ual and spiritual life. Man is a duplex being, one 
man living in another man. The outward man 
we see, but we cannot see the inward man."t 

* Gen. ii, 7. 

t Tke Microcosm f p. 28, January, 1890. 



Ii8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

The reader will recollect that in the argument 
I advanced disapproval of the system of panthe- 
ists, I stated that the universe could not be an 
emanation of the Divine Mind, because God is a 
simple Being, a simple Act, and therefore indivisible. 
This being metaphisically true, God could not 
* ^breathe a portion of His spiritual essence into 
primal man/' If He did, He parted with His 
attributes, which constitute His essence, and 
therefore, He passed from the condition of a self- 
existing and necessary being to that of a depend- 
ent and limited one, which argues an absurdity. 
Man, primal man, did not and could not receive 
a portion of the divine essence in his formation, 
because the infinite could not combine \srith the 
finite, so as to form a rational being. The infinite 
and the limited are extremes that never form a 
unit. If primitive man received a portion of the 
divine essence, then he was partly self-existing and 
partly dependent, a theory or ^^ philosophy " which 
we cannot admit because it is pantheistic. 

The animal or sensitive life of man results from 
the vivifying influence of his soul which permeates 
his whole body. His intellectual results from the 
reflex action of his soul, or from the turning of 
the souPs eye inward upon its actions, while his 
spiritual is the inclination of his will-force towards 
God through the potency of grace. Man is duplex 
or complex from the union and nature of his com- 
ponents. The ''inward man,'' or the soul, is the 
form of the '' outward man," or the body, and, in 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, iig 

as much as it is such, we see it, but are entirely 
ignorant of its essence. The soul of Adam was a 
direct creation of the Almighty, and not a ^^ por- 
tion of His spiritual essence/' Every human soul 
that came into time from the days of Adam to the 
present moment was a result of an omnipotent, 
creative act. 

After man was created, God said: ^^It is not 
good for man to be alone ; let us make for him a 
help like unto himself-'*^ So soon as this help 
was made, society commenced to exist, from the 
relation of the first man and woman to each 
other, or society was based on this relation. The 
law that governed this society, from Adam to 
Abraham, was primitive revelation, handed down 
by tradition. 

That man was created for society is evident 
from the necessities of his nature which demand 
social intercourse with other men. His infancy, 
boyhood and old age demand that he be a member 
of society. In infancy he is naked and helpless, 
and hence, incapable of supplying his wants. In 
boyhood he could c±ot instruct himself in the rudi- 
ments of any science, and hence, he must be 
instructed by others, otherwise, he would grov^ 
up in ignorance. In old age he must be cared for 
as he was in infancy ; otherwise, he would perish. 
Besides, in the married state, if blessed with a 
family, he must provide for their support, give 
them a religious and scientific education. But, as 

** Gen. ii, iS. 



I20 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

those would be impossible in the absence of civil 
society, it follows therefore, that man was created 
for society. 

St. Thomas says, '* The nature of man demands 
that he live in society," and the proof of this state- 
ment he bases on the endowment of speech 
"which,'^he says, *^is a natural sign that he is 
destined for society in order to hold communica- 
tion with his fellows."**^ 

Patriarchial communities were governed accord- 
ing to the principles of the Natural Law, by the 
father, who exercised limited authority over his 
household; that is, he could not condemn one of 
them to death. Over these communities God ruled 
immediately y until the Hebrews rejected the Theo- 
cracy through their demand for a king to govern 
them after the manner of pagan nations. So soon 
as this was complied with, the Theocratic form of 
government ceased, and God ruled the Hebrews 
mediately. Here one would naturally suppose 
that, as Adam was the primogenitor of the human 
race, he was their first political head, but no such 
conclusion can be deduced, because his son, Cain, 
was the founder of political society. 

** And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, 
and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth, at the east 

side of Eden and he built a city, {poliSy) and 

called the name thereof by the name of his son, 
Henoch. "t From this it will be seen, and from the 

*** Opusc, de Regim. Princip. I^ib. i. Cap. i. 
t Gen. iv, i6, 17. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 121 

language of St. Augustin that " Cain was the first 
to assume and exercise political authority over his 
fellows living in communit3^"tt 

Now, from the fact that human beings are the 
work of God, and from the fact that the theocracy 
was rejected, the right to frame laws for self-pro- 
tection and government flowed from the natural 
law to the collective body. To deny this, by 
asserting that ^Hhis right existed inherently in 
man," is to deify him and to stultify reason. We 
must not forget that creation was a free, loving, 
gratuitous act of the Eternal Word, and therefore, 
that there was nothing existing in man inherently 
that he could call his own. He found himself 
enjoying an existence which he did not and could 
not give himself; and this is the sum of his intrinsic 
right to make laws. 

By divine right which is immediately from God, 
collective bodies of human beings make laws and 
have them enforced. But, in as much as all men 
are naturally equal, one cannot claim the right to 
rule the others; if he do, and exercise it by brute 
force, he is a usurper. But if he be elevated to 
supreme power through the consent of the collect- 
ive body, then his right to rule is mediately or 
indirectly from God. From this it will be seen that 
civil or political power emanates from God to the 
collective body, and from them to the ruler. Now, 
as his authority to rule is rooted in God, it is ligit- 
imate, and therefore, cannot be rebelled against 
without the commission of sin. 

tt De Civ. Dei. Cap. 8. 



122 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

But it will be asked : *^ How can my reasoning 
be reconciled with the divine right of kings." The 
holy Scriptures say: *^ By me kings reign and law- 
givers decree just things.* Let every soul be sub- 
ject to higher powers, for there is no power but 
from God, and those that are ordained of God.''** 

The question does not concern us in this coun- 
try. Happily we are not pestered with kings, and 
I hope we never will be. Our form of government 
is grand and glorious — the most glorious and 
grand that the human mind could form. The 
fundamental principles in our political code are the 
public interest, the public good, the natural and 
divine right of liberty, life and property. Our 
ruler cannot promote his own interest instead of 
the public good; if he do, w^e quietly put him out 
of office, without having recourse to physical 
force. 

Kingly power is indirectly from God. The col- 
lective body, by election, choice or nomination, 
select their king and delegate to him the power 
which God conferred on them for self-government, 
and hence, the power so delegated is from God. 
As the law of gravitation, which influences bodies 
in space, is of God, so is the power conferred upon 
the ruler of Him too. Every good is directly or 
indirectly from God, who is the source of truth, 
justice and goodness. But was not the elevation 
of Saul to kingly power immediately from God. 
Of this there can be no doubt. 

* Prov. viii, 15, 16. 
** Romans, xiii, i. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, I2j 

The elevation of Saul to supreme authority was 
immediately from God ; in as much as he was the 
poena peccantium, or a punishment inflicted on 
the Hebrews for their rejection of the Theocracy. 
The term, Saul, in Hebrew signifies ''punishment,'' 
and this was inflicted immediately on the Hebrews 
for the awful sin they committed. That this is 
true, is evident from the fact that, when the^^ 
demanded a King, the demand was displeasing to 
Samuel, who complained to the Lord. In response 
to his complaint, God said : '' Harken to the voice 
of the people ; for they have not rejected tizee, but 
ME, that I should not rule over them.''^ 

Kings, nobles and land-lords whose misrule, 
fraud, oppression, avarice, sensuality and robbery 
upheaved society as did storms the ocean, have 
little mercy to expect from a just God in the invis- 
ible w^orld, because \srhile exercising authority, 
they acted as if non-accountable, and hence, rushed 
madly dow^n the gulf of crime to the bottomless 
abyss of wickedness. Concupiscence and avarice 
blinded their intellects and urged their wills in the 
pursuit of evil, so that they acted like inmates of 
the infernal regions. Does not a perusal of the lives 
of Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell 
of England ; of Napoleon I, of France ; of Victor 
Emanuel of Italy and the rack-renting land-lords 
of Ireland warrant this conclusion.'^ Were not their 
cruel unnecessary wars, their confiscation of land, 
their absorption of the life-blood of the defenseless, 

* I. Kings, viii, 7. 



124 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

and their private criminal deeds, as cruel, as heart- 
less and as barbarous as were those of Mahom* 
med, Abderahman, the Huns, the Vandals and 
Heruli who knew not God, and therefore, allowed 
murder, spoliation, oppression, fraud and perjury 
to vitiate the charter of truth, justice and the 
inherent rights of man. 



CHAPTER V. 
Capital and labor — The primary source of 

CAPITAL LABOR A RESULT OF AdAM'S TRANS- 
GRESSION — The rich and the deserving poor 
— Monopolies and trusts— Their injustice — 
The force of money in our elections — 
Avarice— Its universality in the commer- 
cial WORLD — Its promotion of crime — Its 
tendency to infidelity — is there superna- 
tural light to illumine the world of man ? 
— Whence the source of this light ? 

At the request of a public economist wlio has a 
deep interest in the conflict that exists bet^sveen 
capital and labor, I give place to a philosophical 
examination of the vexed question. Capital is a 
force which increases one's power over his kind 
financially and politically. Intrinsically, it is brute 
matter which has no more value than the expense 
incurred in digging it out of the earth. If bullion 
were as plentiful as limestone, it would be of no 
more value. A dollar in gold or silver is worth no 
more than what it cost to procure the metal and 
mint it. Bankable paper is not money, because it 
is not a product of nature. A note or promise to 
pay has no intrinsic value outside the possibility 

of the fulfillment of the promise. 

125 



126 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

We have already seen that Cain, after he slew 
his brother, settled on the land that was east of 
Eden, and that, there, he built a city. In lapse of 
time the malcontents of society, who partly lived 
by plunder, flocked into this refuge and submitted 
themselves to his political government. As num- 
bers increased, so did capital proportionally. The 
citizens of Henoch, the first city ever organized, 
were communistic and exercised brute force over 
their kind. Philanthropy was foreign to their 
nature, from their rejection of God and the lawless 
lives they led. Avarice blinded their intellects and 
rendered them insensible to the repeated injustice 
they inflicted on their kindred. If we examine the 
history of capital from that period to the present 
we will find that in all nations its basis and crush- 
ing instincts are one and the same -with those of 
Cain and his followers. As vi^e shall soon see, its 
present, grinding, oppressive force, in many 
instances, is veiled by gauzy legislation, which it 
has evoked to conceal or legalize its deformity. 

Although labor is the slave of capital, yet it is 
superior to it, being a punishment inflicted on 
primal man and on his posterity for his sin of dis- 
obedience. '^With labor and toil thou shalt eat 
thereof (the earth,) all the days of thy life .... 
And in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread 
till thou return to the earth, out of which thou 
wast taken ; for dust thou art and into dust thou 
shalt return.'''^ From this it is evident that labor 

* Gen. iii, 17, 19. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 12^1 

is a law of our fallen nature, and as such, that it 
should be respected and protected. Although, it is 
repugnant to our sensibilities, nevertheless, it is 
highly honorable, and therefore, is genuine royalty. 
Royalty other than this is a deadly pest that 
absorbs the vitals of the honest v^orking class. It 
afflicts humanity within its active plane, as does 
la Grippe. Labor, then, being a law of our fallen 
nature, is not only honorable, but useful; it is not 
only useful, but is a force which results from its 
intrinsic nature and the versatility of the human 
mind, which called into action a middle term that 
connects it with science. The light that science 
shed on manual labor, produced for the good of 
society, inventors, artificers and mechanics, who 
have changed the grim, forbidding aspect of labor 
into meridian glare. The invention of machin- 
ery has rendered labor a recreation rather than 
a burden. Then, labor is honorable and is a 
force. Yes, and a greater force than capital. 
This is so evident that it needs no proof. Can 
money of itself, construct railroads, highways 
and other public improvements? Can it build 
houses and cultivate the soil ? It can not, because 
it is passive, dead matter, and therefore, has 
no formative energy. To obtain material for the 
construction of buildings and every thing else 
man requires as a civilized being, we must use the 
force of labor. Is capital prone to pride and 
distain? In the possession of some it is not; in the 
possession of others it is a fungous excrescence 



128 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

that eats their hearts and kills their souls. Has 
the capitalist a just right to the possession of his 
wealth ? He has if he honestly acquired it, because 
he holds his title in real or personal property by 
natural right. But from the nature of things his 
title is subordinate to God's, \^ho is the rightful 
owner by virtue of creation. *^ The earth belongeth 
to the Lord and the plenitude thereof.'' God 
bestows wealth on some to promote the well-being 
of religion, of the worthy poor and of society in 
general. It follows, therefore, that the rich are 
the stewards of the Lord, whose duty it is to dis- 
pense wisely the goods intrusted to their keeping. 
If this be not their duty, then, what else is ? Is it 
to build grand palaces? No. Is it to bribe legis- 
lators, jurors and witnesses to obtain some desired 
purpose? No. Will the rich bring their ^wealth 
with them into the invisible world, when the sands 
of their lives are run out ? No. Can they ward off 
death by their money? No. Death has no more 
respect for a millionaire than for a beggar. Then, 
for what purpose were riches bestowed upon men? 
For that already mentioned. But many of the 
rich neglect those duties. Then, they come under 
the *^woe" pronounced by the Redeemer on the 
rich man. Then, the end of Divus is an eminent 
possibility for them. 

It must be granted because true that'world- 
liness and selfishness exist more among the rich 
than among the poor. These, from their nature, 
harden the heart against almsdeeds and other 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds, I2g 

meritorious works. From the force of these 
evils, the rich, at least many of them, instead 
of helping the poor, oblige them to increase their 
wealth, already too large. This, at first glance, 
seems incredible, but, nevertheless, it is true; 
for monopolies protected by class-legislation, 
attest its truth. The deformity of monopolies 
and trusts, and their oppressive nature, will be 
seen from the fact that fifteen of them have a 
combined capital of one hundred million dollars. 
One of these that operates with eleven million dol- 
lars, recently raised the price of linseed oil from 38 
cents per gallon to 55 cents. Another advanced 
the price of iron and, then, cut down v^ages ten 
per cent. Yet another that controls the manufac- 
ture of fence- wire, raised the price ten per cent. 
With these, and the coflan, and the window-glass, 
and the salt, and the twine, and the pork, and the 
beef trusts the laboring class can do nothing, 
because of the force of money used against them 
by capitalists. On what are these combinations 
based? On money and protection. Is there a 
remedy ? There is. The tariff laws, in as much as 
they are intended to enable the favored classes of 
producers to exact more for their products than 
they could obtain under free competition, should 
be repealed. Classes of production should not be 
compelled to pay tribute to others. A great nation, 
such as ours is, that governs rather by reason than 
by brute force, should not afford protection to 
trusts or combinations that are intrinsically 



130 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

tinjust. According to the logic of justice, and com- 
mon sense, labor should be protected, as are the 
rights of property and personal liberty. But it is 
not, because money-force, often, too often, puts 
demagogues into legislative halls, who care little 
for the rights of labor. The various associa- 
tions organized and sustained by the laboring 
class for protection against moneyed monarchs are 
ineffectual. So too are ** strikes.'' No force, no 
combination can remedy this crushing, blood- 
absorbing evil, except the force of legislation. As 
the laboring class control and direct this force, 
they have it in their power to do away with trusts 
and monopolies, if only they vote rationally. Will 
they? Time will tell. 

But it will be argued that commercial force must 
not be rendered passive by legal enactments. It 
must not so long as its motion is rectilineal; but 
when it is curvilineal, it should be suspended. 
When it is unjust in its dealings, its crooked course 
should be stopped by legal trammels. This the 
good of the majority demands. Whenever there is 
wanting an equilibrium between capital and labor, 
there is injustice either on the one side or on the 
other. If we investigate the cause of the down- 
ward tendency of the balance, we will find, invar- 
iably, that it is greed on the part of capitalists. 
The laborer sees it incline towards mammon, but 
is powerless to keep it equipoised. All he can do is 
to look on ; all he can say is that, bitter experience 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 131 

has taught him to loathe monopoUsts who abstract 
from him his goods without due remuneration. 

Avarice is not confined to monopolists and capi- 
talists alone. No, indeed, for it has extended itself 
throughout the world of corpmerce. There is 
scarceh^ a man doing business that is not more or 
less tainted with its greed. Obedient to its instruc- 
tions, some adulterate the food necessarj^ for the 
support of life; others give light weight and false 
measure ; yet others appropriate to their own use 
money and goods that belong to their neighbors; 
still others will lie to heighten the value of an 
article, although, aware that the act leaves a stain 
on their souls, if it do not greater injury. 

Avarice, throughout the world of man is ubiq- 
uitous, and it is as unblushing as it is omnipresent. 
As air insinuates itself into animal lungs, so does 
it into the human heart, and once there, it is hard 
to dislodge it. Of its dwelling place it has no 
choice. It is as content in the heart of a thief as 
in that of a miser ; in the heart of a beggar as in 
that of a millionaire; in the heart of alewdv^oman 
as in that of an honest one, and in the heart of an 
infidel as well as in that of a so-called Christian. 
It loves to figure in politics as well as in commerce, 
and that it be a factor in this, it summons to its 
aid its co-efficient, bribery^ which is a very motive 
force in the world of politics, and one that has 
induced class-legislation to the detriment of the 
laboring class. 

Avarice is always young, buoyant, vivacious 



132 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

and hopeful ; but its hope is not a living one, not 
one that anchors the soul to God, while tossed and 
tossed again on the angry ocean of time. No, its 
hope is dead, because its essence is sordid, perish- 
able gain. At one time its vibrations are noisy 
and discordant, at another its undulations are 
musical and agreeable to the ear. This alternation 
results from its non-realized hope and from its 
gratified desires. Let me explain. Although the 
explanation may seem to the reader to be a digres- 
sion, yet it is not such, as it bears on the subject I 
am discussing. 

If we traveled through Asia and Africa v^e 
would witness the effusion of human blood offered 
in sacrifice to idols. As the awful crime results 
from the blindness of paganism, we, from an 
impulse of charity, sever the ties of kindred and 
forego the blessings of civilization in order to 
Christianize those Pagans. As the act is heroic 
and meritorious, it will receive a rev^ard in the 
invisible Kingdom. But vv^e need not leave our 
o^wn country to witness similar crime committed 
by many of those who cherish a love for ^^specu- 
lative faith.'' Although this country is Christian, 
yet human victims are immolated on the altars of 
material paganism, and those who preach a specu- 
lative faith seem, by their non-denunciation of the 
crime, to justify it. False science and untruthful 
theology teach that the ens in embryo, or the 
human foetus has neither life nor soul, and hence, 
that it is no crime to dislodge it. In the course of 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds. zjj 

this work we shall prove to a mathematical cer- 
tainty that the human germ is complex; that it 
enjoys esse; that it has an immortal soul, and that 
it is an awful sin against God to remove it from 
its natural resting place, before development. Not 
only do nominal Christians resort to abortion, but 
to infanticide, also, which admits of no palliation, 
because it is the destruction of human life, in defi- 
ance of God^s express command ^which reads : Non 
occides, ^^thou shalt not kill.' ^ What are those 
crimes a result of? Of avarice. The desire to save 
and make money is the efficient cause of these 
unnatural crimes. 

A man who is a so-called Christian, gets 
entangled in the coils of a v^oman who is too fond 
of costly attire and too lazy to vrork for an honest 
living; he makes an effort to get out of his dilemma, 
but cannot without the use of money. Although 
the money force he employs, belongs to his familj^ 
by the inherent law of justice, yet he plentifully 
hands it over to this sequacious female that 
ministered to his unruly passion. Of what is this 
a result ? Of avarice and of sensuality. 

We are touched with shame, and justly so, at 
the existence of Mormonism, which is a disgrace 
to our boasted civilization. Preachers of Protest- 
antism discourse against, scowl at and howl at 
this loathsome institution; but they neither preach 
against, howl at, or scowl at a system that exists 
in our midst which is as loathing to ethical instinct 
as is Mormonism. 



134 ^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

I ask the candid reader, is there a State in the 
Union that is not inhabited with polygamists who 
heartlessly, through divorce, drove their wives ont 
on the cold charity of the w^orld, to take younger 
ones to their guilty bosoms ? Must it not be con- 
ceded, because true, that, outside the Catholic 
Church, marriage is not respected. Marriage, 
Christian marriage, which God Himself hedged 
■with unity, sanctity and indissolubility, and which 
the Redeemer raised to the dignity of a sacrament, 
is reduced to the condition of, and is looked upon 
as a civil contract by so-called Christians! In 
Avhat is divorce rooted ? In avarice, sensuality and 
injustice. 

Into w^hat system has the moral sense of our 
polygamists entered? Into that of infidelity. 
Into what system has their fearof retributive just- 
ice entered? Into infidelity which has not only 
dulled their conscience but blinded it. Then, infi- 
delity is slowly, but surely corroding the vitals of 
our great Christian nation. There is no doubt of 
it. Its corroding, destroying action is as plainly 
evident to Christian vision, as are the cooling of 
the nuclei of the sun and the earth to scientific. 
Now is there in the horizon of humanity a light 
that will enable us to see the destroying action of 
infidelity? There is. In the firmament of humanity 
there is a divine light through the glare of which 
we can see the deformity of infidel systems, with 
the same degree of clarity that we do that of 



The Visible and hivisihle Worlds, 13^ 

sensible objects. Who is the source of this divine 
light ? The Incarnate Word. 

In our examination of the diversified matter 
that entered into the formation of the universe, we 
have seen that it resulted from the potency of the 
&at uttered by the Eternal Word, and therefore, 
that it had its origen in time. We have further 
seen that, so soon as the earth was fit for man to 
abide on, he v^as called into existence, and that, 
during his probationary term he fell; that after 
his fall he was confronted by his Creator, who 
promised redemption. During the long period that 
elapsed from man's fall to the fulfillment of this 
promise the w^orld of man was enveloped in the 
darkness of paganism. Not a solitary ray of sav- 
ing light gleamed on our earth, outside the little 
kingdom of Judea. That the promise of redemp- 
tion be fulfilled, the Eternal Logos, who created 
the visible and invisible worlds, and all their enti- 
ties, came on our planet, assumed humanity, 
divinely established His Church and commanded 
her to preach His Gospel. This heaven-sustained 
w^ork of God's creative power is built upon the 
doctrine divinely revealed, that all unjust, oppres- 
sive monopolies, trusts and combinations are 
hateful to God ; that second marriage contracted 
after a divorce is obtained, is hateful to Him , that 
avarice is the root of evil, and that the sensual will 
have no share in the kingdom of heaven. It is 
further built on the doctrine that the various 
systems of infidelity are howling storms which 



ijd The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

deal spiritual ruin in their path to all those who 
remain within their rotary center. As the subject 
of religion is very important I shall advert to it in 
another part of this work. 

I shall, in the next chapter, place before my 
readers, in a condensed form, the glories of the 
sidereal heavens, which shine in undiminished 
lustre, declare the praise of God and chant anthems 
to Him. In the ^whole expanse of nature, I know 
of no study that gives the mind so exalted an idea 
of God, as does that of the celestial spheres. The 
heavenly bodies, 'which are ranged in space around 
God's invisible kingdom, give testimony of His 
existence, wisdom and power, and put to shame 
the benighted ignorance of agnosticism and 
materialism, ^^hich deify the effect, and blindly 
reject its First efficient Cause. 



CHAPTER VI. 
The sidereal heavens — The asteroids — Stars 

OF THE first MAGNITUDE — ThEIR DISTANCE 
FROM EACH OTHER — ThEIR AREA OF ATTRAC- 
TION— ThEIR MOTION— Comets— Their source 
— Their chemistry — Star showers — Their 
source and chemistry. 

I shall now, cast a passing glance at the 
celestial bodies, outside our solar system, which 
are nearest to the empyrean heavens, and which, 
from their testimony, as we shall see in the course 
of this chapter, bring shame to the gross ignorance 
and blatant impudence of materialists and agnost- 
ics. Then, beyond our solar system, on a cloudless 
night, through the agency of a good telescope, we 
behold heaven's blue dome garnished with gems 
the most brilliant. To the naked eye they appear 
as if broad-cast, without design or architectural 
skill, but whto we apply the telescope to them and 
a mathematical investigation, w^e find that they 
are millions upon millions of miles apart; that 
they are huge masses of matter, and that order 
reigns supreme among them. We further find that, 
beyond the regions of stars of the sixteenth mag- 
nitude, in the gulf of immensurable space, there are 
dense strata of luminous specks, or stars, which 

appear like a vast shore of diamonds which reflect 

137 



13S The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

the sun's rays, and that, back of those accumulated 
systems, isolated suns, self-luminous vapour, 
elliptical discs, threads of light of indescribable 
brilliancy and complexity, are descried which pro- 
claim the power of God and the undiminished force 
of gravitation. 

That the glory, brilliancy, distance, mass, num- 
ber, mathematical construction, equilibrium and 
orbitual motion of the heavenly bodies impart an 
exalted idea of God, to the Christian mind, is the 
testimony of those who study the heavens under 
the light of science and faith. If a view of the 
sidereal firmament fill the soul with delight, how 
great must be its ecstatic joy, when it shall behold 
the Creator of the vast and complex universe and 
the glory of His Kingdom, into which nothing 
defiled can enter. Oh ! the beauty, the delight, the 
happiness and sweets of this Kingdom, ^vhich, I 
hope, we will yet enjoy, should excite us to good 
works, and, especially, to the love of God, vv^ho has 
done so much for us in the visible and invisible 
worlds. 

Before I advert to the gems that twinkle in 
**ebon cope" I will devote a brief space to the 
asteroids, which are w^orthy of notice, owing to 
the great beauty and brilliancy of their light. The 
asteroids, {aster^ a star, and eidoSj form) seventy- 
five in number, are little planets, whose orbits lie 
between those of Mars and Jupiter. As their 
names, eccentricity, distance from each other, and 
orbitual inclination belong to the science of astron- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, ijg 

omy, I shall only notice three of them, namely, 
Vesta, Ceres and Pallas. Of all the asteroids Vesta 
is the most beautiful, owing to its deep, soft, 
yellow light, which it sheds with great intensity, 
although, distant from the sun 223,000,000 miles. 
Why its light is yellow, is a question that has not 
yet been philosophically answered. Scientific con- 
jecture is not scientific proof, and hence, opinions 
alone, expressed by some astronomers, as to the 
cause of this phenomenon are not worth inserting. 
Ceres can be easily discerned by its deep, crimson 
light, Pallas by its pale, yellow light. Up to the 
present time, neither the office nor the chemistry of 
the asteroids are defined wath any degree of cer- 
tainty. On their motion and density a good deal 
of conjecture has been employed, which is 
unw^orthy of notice. 

That the astronomical student may feast his 
mind and vision on the glory, beauty and sublimity 
of a star-lighted night, he must have a telescope of 
good defining powers; v/ith this he can read the 
sidereal dome to his utmost satisfaction, and after 
he has done so, if he be honest, he will acknowledge 
that the heavenly bodies declare the existence and 
power of God. He ^11 further acknowledge that, 
materialism which denies these, is a hedious phan- 
tom. Then, through this instrument, if its convex 
lenses are so combined as to increase the angle of 
vision,"^ he finds that the apparent little stars are 

* The angle of vision is that which is formed at the eye, when viewing 
a distant object, by the inclination of two opposite lines drawn from the 
object. 



I^^O The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

vast bodies, and that they are millions of miles 
distant from each other. He also finds that, there 
are centers which have planets and planets that 
have satellites, which revolve arotind them as does 
the earth arotind the sun and the moon around 
the earth, through the force of gravitation, and 
that these bodies render themselves visible either 
through their own light or through the light of 
their primaries vi^hich they reflect. But so soon as 
he points his instrument to a star, which is only a 
point of light, he sees that it moves continuously. 
This motion is only apparent and results from the 
earth's motion. All bodies external to the earth 
seem to be in motion, v^hile it alone appears to be 
motionless. It was this apparent fixedness that 
afi^orded a basis for the geocentric theory which so 
long gained the assent of the mind in past ages of 
our civilization. Now, the most trivial knowledge 
of mathematics ought to be able to remove this 
erroneous idea. If all bodies in space revolved 
around our earth, as their center, the path of the 
sun would be four-hundred times greater than that 
of the moon— that is, this body would have to 
travel four-hunbred times faster than the moon 
around the earth in twenty-four hours, a thing 
impossible to bodies in motion. If this were true 
of the sun, who could conceive the motion of stars 
of the twelfth magnitude around the earth that 
are billions of miles distant from it ? 

Here I ask materialists, agnostics, evolutionists 
and atheists, are the spherical form, the elliptical 



The Visible a7id I?ivisibie Worlds, 141 

orbit of those bodies and the order that attends 
their motion, the work of nature, or of chance, or 
of matter acting on itself? No, they are the work 
of Power, of designing Reason, of a self-existing 
God, who created, formed and poised them in 
space. 

In the dim, distant depths of space, a Centauri, 
a fixed star and one of the nearest to our solar 
system, is computed by astronomers to be 226,400 
times more distant from our planet than is its 
center. If this be multiplied by the sun's distance 
from the earth, we have a stretch of space 
embracing 21,508,000,000,000 miles. To form an 
idea of this vast expanse is impossible. In its im- 
mensity the human mind is bewildered. This star 
is suspended in space near the Southern Cross 
and is easily seen owing to the intensity of its 
light. 

Although light travels at the rate of 28,000 
miles per second, yet it ^would take three years for 
a ray of light of the nearest fixed star to reach our 
earth. It would take thousands of years for a 
ray of light from the most distant nebula to reach 
our planet. Beyond the stary fields of our firma- 
ment, an apparent, dark, empty space has been 
descried by telescopic explorations, and outside 
this dark vacuum, the gleam of another firmament 
has been discovered, whose primaries fuse into 
what seems to be nebulous clouds. How immense, 
then, is space and how omnipotent its Creator. 

The lover of astronomical science would be well 



X^|.2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

paid for his labor and expense to cross the truly 
Pacific Ocean to take a view of a Centauri and the 
glorious Southern Cross. I think that human 
vision never beheld anything in the order of 
nature more sublime, than the scene that would 
meet his gauze. The brilliancy of the stars that 
are set in the crystalline sky; the vast sea of golden 
light that is shed by the sun on the quiescent 
ocean, as he sinks to rest on his watery couch ; the 
death-like calm; the refreshing influence of the 
Zephyrs, vitalized by the sunbeams and scented 
with the aroma of semi-tropical flowers; the 
phosphoresence"^ of the sea, which seemed to hold 
silent converse with the stars, that shed their soft 
light on the glorious scene ; the efforts of tiny fish 
to wing their flight from their native home, and 
the continuous march, in the track of the ship, of 
the snapping tiger — the shark, in quest of food, a 
figure of the sensual man who feeds his passions 
habitually on food too disgusting to mention, 
impart an idea of creation's sublimity to the 
Christian soul that centers it on God. 

The orbitual radius of Canis Majoris, the Dog 
Star, is computed by astronomers to be 
2,267,000,000 miles. Admitting this to be true, 
who can form a conception of his mass ? Astron- 
omers tell us that the attractive force of the sun 



* The phosphoresence of the Pacific Ocean, so wonderful for the first 
time to the vision of travelers, results from the presence and activity of 
animalculae which sport in festive glee in the water. In Zoology they are • 
called noctilucs, from the I^atin words, nox^ "night," and liicere, to 
"shine." The truth of this can be ascertained by filtering the water, and, 
then, submitting the noctilucs to the force of a microscope which will 
clearly define their individuality and animal being. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 143 

extends 1,000,000,000,000 miles in diameter, and 
that the distance of Canis Majoris from this out- 
ward boundary is 185,000,000,000,000 miles. 
From this awful distance, we can conform a con- 
fused notion of the immensity of space. But this 
is not all. Capella, a very brilliant star, suspended 
in space between Orion and the Polar Star, is distant 
from Canis Majoris 295,355,000,000,000 miles. 
Now, it would take Canis Majoris seven hundred 
thousand years, traveling at the rate of 14 miles 
per second, to impinge upon Capella. From those 
truths attested by the grand science of astronomy, 
the immensity of space is inconceivable. The 
spherical bulk of this star is one thousand seven 
hundred times greater than that of the sun. We 
are told by astronomers that six hundred star 
systems surround our solar system, each of which 
has an attractive area of 180,000,000,000,000 
miles in diameter. And yet, we can not call space 
infinite. No, it is limited. There is only one In- 
finite — God who formed the bodies that revolve in 
space, ^ 

In the vast expanse of space, through the light 
of science, we obtain the certainty that suns after 
suns, systems after systems are harmoniously 
united by the filaments of gravitation, spun by 
Almighty Power. If not, then, by whom, or by 
what else? Are not materialists, agnostics, athe- 

* I inserted here rules by which the distance of the celestial bodies from 
each other is ascertained ; but after some deliberation, expunged them, 
because the explanation of the diagrams the rules required, were too 
abstruse and complex for non-mathematical intellects. Besides, the men- 
suration of a celestial body and its diurnal parallax belong solely to the 
science of astronomy. 



144- The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

ists and positivists awfully befogged, when they 
attribute creation to natural or material causa- 
tion? 

But the sublimity and unspeakable glory and 
grandeur of the creative act is not confined to our 
solar and star systems. No, indeed. It shines in 
radiant splendor in the being and formation of 
comets, which have created wonders in the human 
mind, and baffled its attempts to ascertain their 
nature, utility and chemistry. 

As the extended continuity of gravitation does 
not influence those bodies that visit us from time 
to time, it is more than probable that the homo- 
geneous nebula which remained, after the arida 
was eliminated, entered into their formation. This 
conclusion I deduce from their continually changing 
dimensions which give us to infer that they have 
no concentric gravitation. That this is true is self- 
evident, for stars can be distinctly viewed through 
their attenuated bodies. Of the chemistry of 
comets, all we know, beyond conjecture is^ that it 
differs from that of every body in our solar system. 
Bodies in our system are more or less condensed, 
and hence, have concentric attraction, while 
comets are devoid of self-chemical affinity. They 
do not even form ellipses, or shut orbits. Why 
they do not science does not state. I think this 
results from the cosmical matter of which they are 
composed. Another strange thing connected with 
comets is that, neither in their direct, nor in their 
retrograde motion, do they gravitate towards a 



The Visible and divisible Worlds. 14^ 

solitary body in our solar system. Attraction 
seems to have no influence on them. To speculate 
on the source of their luminositj^ would be folly, 
because the science of astronomy, thus far, 
advances no theory worthy of acceptance. Why 
God formed them and for what purpose, are buried 
in darkness. Although this is true, yet they have 
a duty to perform, if we only knew it. If we were 
ignorant of the office assigned to the Desert of 
Sahara and the Gulf Stream, we might infer that 
they were called into existence without a purpose, 
but we cannot so conclude, because we know that 
the one gives the south of Europe a high degree of 
heat and that the other gives the west a genial 
temperature. The emerald garments of poor, 
downtrodden Ireland, are gifts of the Gulf Stream. 
If v^e were ignorant, also, of the office assigned 
to the aurora borealis or northern lights, we 
v^ould deduce a similar inference, but since we 
know their duty and the good they confer on man 
during the long polar night, we praise and admire 
the benignity of the Creator who had the well- 
being of His children present to His Mind in all 
His works. 

There is another phenomenon, terrestrial in its 
origin and nature, on which I will make a few 
comments for the benefit of my readers who may 
not be versed in the science of astronomy. From 
time to time, we notice the presence and brief 
action of shooting stars, or meteors, but cannot 
satisfactorily account for their origin. Some 



146 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

^vriters tell us that meteors are a result of lunar 
volcanos ; others that they are cast off by bodies 
which occupy planetary space. But both those 
theories are untrue, for the reason that the law of 
gravity does not allow a particle of matter to 
escape from the surface of one body in space to 
another. If the volcanos on the lunar surface be 
extinct, and they are to a certainty, how could 
they cast out meteors ? And even if they did, from 
the gaseous tenuity of meteoric matter, is it not 
reasonable to suppose, that those bodies would 
not float outside the moon's path in its revolution 
around the earth ? It is not, therefore, true that 
meteors have a planetary origin; if they have, 
why are they seen only in our atmosphere ? It is 
admitted because true, that decayed animal and 
vegetable matter generate a great quantity of gas, 
which, from its chemical combinations, floats 
above the lowest strattim of our atmosphere. The 
gas, so floating, agreeable to the laws of affinity, 
combines with other gaseous fluids on which grav- 
itation acts by w^ay of sending it back to the 
earth. In its descent through the dense atmos- 
phere, which is highly heated by convection, it is 
ignited, and hence, the source of meteors. If the 
stratum of atmosphere that overhangs the earth 
be heavily loaded with vapor, it will be minus fric- 
tional force, and hence, in wet weather we witness 
no such phenomena as star showers. If a meteor 
be viewed through a good refractor, before it 
explodes, it will be seen through the electric light it 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 14*^ 

emits that its components are gaseous, which look 
like bright clouds (cirro-cumuli^) illumined by sun- 
light. Any theory other than this, is contrary to 
reason, and is antagonistic to true science. 

It has been often asked by non-scientific persons, 
** why the stars do not shed more light upon the 
earth, if they be such large, luminous bodies as they 
are said to be.'' The feebleness of star light is a 
result of its distance from the earth, while the 
apparent diminutiveness of the stars is a conse- 
quence of the smallness of the angle of vision. I 
have already stated that the intensity of light 
varies inversily as the square of the distance. This 
rule being geometrically true, it follows that in a 
uniform medium the intensity of light decreases as 
its distance increases in the same ratio, as a given 
surface diminishes as we recede from it. In pro- 
portion as w^e recede from a luminous body it 
appears smaller to our vision, while its brilliancy 
is constant. In proportion as we recede from a 
luminous body our eyes receive less of its light, 
although the apparent area remains the same. It 
takes light, notwithstanding the velocity of its 
motion (192,500 miles per second,) a long time to 
travel billions, trillions and quintrillions of miles. 
There are bodies in the dark, dim, distant womb of 
space that, up to this, have not shed a ray of their 
light upon our earth. 

In the absence of revelation, the grand and 
noble science of astronomy, is sufficient to dis- 
prove the vapid theories of materialists. This 



I^f.8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

science, which is in its infancy, proves that, in the 
whole expanse of space, there is no body insensible 
to, or non-influenced by gravitation. Gravitation, 
throughout the universe is continuous, universal 
and unbroken. In spherical space it is present and 
connects body with body, system writh system, 
which form a grand unique whole while itself is 
obedient to conserving, illimitable, ubiquitous, 
omnipotent Po^wer that formed, suspended and 
adjusted those bodies in space, so remote from 
each other, that, under the guidance of this law, 
collision is impossible till the end of time. When 
this eventful moment arrives, then, the action of 
this force will be suspended, and the omnipotent 
fiat that evoked bodies from a possible to an 
actual state, will change their form. 

Although the field of nebulous matter, which 
extends through immeasurable space, is as glorious 
as it is vast, yet its vastness and glory are inferior 
to those of the human soul that is made to the 
image of God, and therefore, is capable of know- 
ing, loving and serving Him, w^hile matter is not. 
Notwithstanding the inherent truth of this, yet, 
some men say in their hearts vrith the fool that, 
there is no God. Ah ! in the invisible world they 
will acknowledge the existence and goodness of 
God, but their confession will be of no avail. 



The Invisible Worlds, 



CHAPTER VII. 

The creation of angels— Their probation and 
FALL — Disembodied spirits — Purgatory — Is 

IT A PLACE OR A STATE ? Is IT IN THE EARTH OR 
ON IT ? 

The invisible worlds, which, like the visible, 
were made by the omnipotent Basileus tou aionoSy 
(King of eternity,) or by the Ruah Elohitn (Spirit 
of God,) that moved over the ^waters and dispelled 
the darkness which was on the face of tehon, the 
deep, through the elimination of light out of Kaos, 
are difficult to treat, because they do not come 
into the world of sense. As things ^^ unseen '' are 
effects produced by the activity of Primal Power, 
we accept the certainty of their existence on the 
evidence of divine revelation. This w^as the only 
testimony St. Paul required, who said : '' By faith 
w^e understand that the world was framed by the , 
word of God ; that from invisible things, visible 
things might be made."* 

The evidence, which, in the early ages of Christi- 
anity, was sufficient to prove the existence of 
things invisible, is no longer so, owing to the rapid 
growth of skepticism that sways highly culti- 

* Hebrews, xi, 3. 149 



I^O The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

vated minds. Although the cold, dreary winter of 
old age is upon their heads, yet there is no eternal 
spring in their hearts, no celestial yearning in their 
souls, no desire to inhale the fragrance of the 
spiritual roses that exhale the aroma of God and 
His elect. In their hearts nothing can be found but 
the love of the world, and this chaos, this black 
night can not be illumined by any light other than 
that of divine faith. 

"When the disciples asked the Redeemer who was 
greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He called to 
Him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and 
said : ** Amen I say unto you unless you become as 
little children, 3^ou shall not enter into the kingdom 
of heaven."*^' The kingdom of heaven spoken of 
here, is the Church, the kingdom of God on earth, 
whose revealed dogmas we must accept as true, 
-with the same confidence that little children do, 
whatever their parents tell them. 

Now, from the fact that God has revealed the 
principle to be believed, the mind, no matter how 
highly cultivated it may be, can accept it as true, 
because He is infinite truth who can not deceive. 
Then through the inherent truth of divine faith, 
which is above reason, and hence, is the highest 
order of knowledge that the human mind can 
possess, we accept the teaching that in the invis- 
ible worlds there are pure, holy, simple, intellectual 
essences who are called angels ; that, besides these, 
there are repulsive, ugly spirits who are called 

** Matth. xviii, 3. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, i^l 

demons ; that the former are dazzling orbs of light, 
from the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision; that 
the latter, from the deprivation of this, and from 
the nature of their penal state, are monsters of 
darkness and deformity; that the former adore 
and serve their Creator; that the latter execrate 
His holy name, and that these extremes result 
from their respective conditions. 

As before stated, the omnipotent £at no sooner 
was uttered than myriads of intellectual entities, 
evolved from a possible to an actual state, who 
were capable of loving and serving their Creator, 
because endowed with the highest order of intel- 
lectuality. Those spirits of marvelous beauty 
reflected the light of their Creator, who enriched 
them with all the supernatural gifts their limited 
nature could bear. Those happy, bright, glorious 
spirits intuitively saw the grandeur and sublimity 
of the creative £at that produced them from non- 
being to being, because their knowledge was 
higher and more extensive than that of man who 
came into existence epochs upon epochs after them, 
and hence the purity and intensity of the worship 
they paid to the Eternal Word. 

These exhalted entities, having no inherent 
right to their creation, or to the possession and 
enjoyment of their supernatural gifts, were put on 
probation, as we have already seen, to teach them 
their dependance on the Supreme Being who 
created them, and, through evil desire rooted in 
pride, one third of them fell. They fell by turning 



1^2 The Visible and Invisible V/orlds, 

away from God through a desire of possessing a 
spiritual excellency that was above their limited 
nature. They expressed a desire to be an exact 
copy of their Creator, not in essence, but in efful- 
gence, and for this sin they were cast out of heaven 
into hell, there to burn and rave in madness and 
dispair for ever and ever. The justice of God con- 
sumed them without annihilating them; it con- 
verted their glorious day into dismal night, their 
joy into sorrow, their love into hatred and their 
prayer into blasphemy. It is true that these 
simple spiritual, intellectual entities Avere created 
to the image of God, but this did not endow^ 
them with His glory or power, which they desired, 
and this extinguished their marvelous light. 

Although their forms no longer reflected the 
pure, holy image of the Deity, yet in essence they 
were immortal, active and intelligent. Their 
knowledge is far superior to that of any human 
being, no matter how well cultivated his mind 
may be. From the intensity of the punishment 
inflicted upon them and its eternal duration, they 
entertain hatred towards God and all those who 
serve Him in spirit and truth. In the exercise of 
their hatred, by way of inducing the faithful to sin 
against God, they are greatly restrained by His 
grace and the protection of good angels, who con- 
stantly walk with us in all our pursuits. 

We have already seen that primal man, after 
his creation, was put on probation ; that he fell 
before his term ended, and that as a punishment 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. ijj 

attached to his fall, or as one resulting from it, he 
''died the death.'' The change his body would 
undergo, if he had not sinned, before its entrance 
into heaven, belongs to theology and not to a 
work like this. I will state, however, that so soon 
as man's components are separated — that is, so 
soon as he dies, his soul wings its flight with more 
than lightning speed to the tribunal of God, there 
to be rev/arded or punished proportional to the 
life it led while united to its body on this earth. 
If the human soul on its departure from its earthly 
tenament, be free from mortal, venial and original 
sin, it is admitted into the kingdom of God. If it 
be in mortal sin, it is sentenced to hell ; if in venial, 
to purgatory, and if in original, to a state in 
which there is natural good and no suffering, 
except that which results from the deprivation of 
the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision, and this is 
so keen, that the human mind can form no idea of 
its intensity. How necessary then, is baptism, 
without the reception of which, no soul is admitted 
to the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision. In confir- 
mation of this, the Redeemer said: ''Amen, amen 
I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water 
and the Holy Ghost, he can not enter into the 
kingdom of God.'"^** 

Now all denominations professing Christianity, 
except the Catholic, deny the existence of a middle 
state. The One Fold, alone, admits that there is 
a middle state in which souls suffer for a time 

*** John, iii, 5. 



1^4 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

before they are admitted into heaven. Her motives 
for this admission are based on divine revelation 
-which clearly proves, mathematically so, the 
existence of this stMe. Before I introduce proof 
of the existence of purgatory, I shall state that no 
dogma of the Christian religion has been so mis- 
represented, so laughed at, so sneered at, so cari- 
catured as that of purgatory. If those Avho deny 
its existence would only balance the proof I shall 
advance on its actuality against the dictates of 
their own reasoning on which they base the 
denial, I think they would clearly see that the 
beam would not be equipoised, proof being on my 
side. But this they will not do. Nevertheless, I 
put them the following question vsrhich, T hope, 
will command their attention. If there be no 
intermediate, no middle state in ^which sin is pun- 
ished after death, who of us, that reached the 
meridian of life, or day's decline, can be found free 
from trivial faults, venial sins which displease God, 
and hence, exclude us from His society? If the 
reply be, *^that believing members are so united 
to, so grooved in Jesus Christ, that they can not 
sin,'' the question is not answered, because 'Hhe 
just man sins seven times a day," and the Psalmist 
says: *^ Every man is a liar."t St. John says: ^^If 
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, 
and the truth is not in us. "ft In the Apocalypse, 
the same apostle speakingof heaven says: ^* There 

t Psalm 115. 

ft 1 E)pis. of John, i, chap. 8. 



The Visible a?td Invisible Worlds. 755 

'shall not enter into it any thing defiled, or any 
one that worketh an abomination, or a //e.'^ttt 
Then if there be no middle state, no purgatory, 
Tvho of us can hope to be admitted to the enjoy- 
ment of the Beatific Vision, when the sands of our 
lives are run out? Some ministers, who argued 
this important question with me, asserted that the 
^* atmosphere purified the soul, while on its journey 
to the judgment seat of God ;^^ others, that *^ minor 
offences against the majesty of God were effaced by 
the pangs of death ;'' yet others, that '' all believing 
Christians are justified by faith alone/' Can I 
find this threefold theory sustained by the inspired 
Word of God ? I can not. In vain will I search the 
Latin, the Greek and the Hebrew Bible for such an 
assurance. The action of our atmosphere on a 
disemboiiied spirit, has no, purifying influence. 
Matter cannot act on simple, spiritual entities. 
That this is true I shall prove in the next chapter. 
Besides, the moment the soul is separated from 
the human body, it is judged, and hence, the 
absurdity of the theory advanced by my friend of 
the Universalist denomination. It is also false to 
assert that ''the pangs of death wipe out trivial 
offences committed against the majesty of God," 
because the pain incident to the separation of our 
components, is common to saint and sinner, to 
child and aged person. It is equally false to assert 
that we are justified by faith alonCy because it is 
not the language of divine revelation. Prior to 

ttt Apoc. xxi, 27. 



1^6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

the days of Luther, justification by ^^ faith alone/^ 
had no existence. Not till the advent of this man 
did such language appear, and its incorporation 
into the Lutheran Bible was his work. The fruit 
it has produced is too painfully evident to need 
comment. This doctrine, to avoid the criticism 
and condemnation of sound reason, was sustained 
by the denial of the existence of a middle state, by 
the misrepresentation of alms-deeds and other 
pious works. To force its acceptance on the ignor- 
ant, Luther had recourse to caricatures too inde- 
cent to be described to my readers. Did this anti- 
Scriptural, anti-Christian doctrine suspend works 
of supererogation which result from the practice 
of true faith through supernatural motives ? Only 
in those who subscribed to it. In the followers of 
Luther, it not only put an end to the performance 
of pious works through supernatural motives, but 
to their faith also. Is this true? It is, because 
outside the Church Jesus Christ built and baptized 
in His Blood, there is no true faith. The various 
denominations do not live by faith, and do not 
demand its profession of their members, because 
they are only voluntary associations, whose belief 
may or may not be in harmony with a so-called 
Bible. 

That *^ faith alone'' does not justify, is evident 
from St. Paul who says: ^*If I speak with the 
tongues of men and angels, and have not charity, 
I am become as a sounding brass, or a tinkling 
cymbal ; And if I should have prophecy, and knpw^ 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 757 

all mysteries, and all knowledge; and if I should 
have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, 
and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I 
should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, 
and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.''"^ From 
this it will be seen that ^^ faith alone'' does not 
justify without good works. Faith is the founda- 
tion of the spiritual edifice and good w^orks are 
the material that enter into its construction. 

That good works be produced, the will must be 
inflamed by charity or the love of God. Will-force 
of itself can not advance the human soul towards 
its ultimate end, without the aid of divine grace. 
The human will, \^hen touched by grace, inclines 
towards good works, but is not forced to perform 
them. When the will pursues any natural good, it 
does so through a natural impulse, or through its 
own agency, and receives a natural reward. But, 
without the grace of God, as rational beings, we 
can NOT perform a solitary act of supernatural 
merit. In confirmation of this Christ says: ^^No 
man can come to me, except the Father, who hath 
sent me, draw him'' — % that is, by supernatural 
aid, or grace. St. Paul says: ^^By grace you are 
saved through faith, and this not of yourselves ; 
for it is the gift of God ; not of works that no 
man may glory" — %t that is, not of works from 
ourselves, or through the natural impulse of our 

* I Corin. xiii, 1-3. 
X John vi, 44. 
X% Kph. ii, 8, g. 



1^8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

wills, but from and through the grace of God, 
which is the efficient force that produces merit. 

In the supernatural order grace is not a result 
of merit, but merit is of grace. Practical faith, or 
faith vivified by charity which results from grace 
clothes the soul in the raiment of justice ; it brings 
the soul into a state of loving reconciliation with 
God who smiles approvingly upon it, and imparts 
to it a foretaste of heaven. It follows, therefore, 
that speculative faith, or '^ faith alone" does not 
justify without works. In confirmation of this 
conclusion St. James says: ^^ But some man will 
say, thou hast faith and I have works. Sho^vv me 
thy faith \^rithout works, and I will shoTV thee my 
faith by ^works. Thou believes t there is one God. 
Thou doest well; the devils believe and tremble. 
But wilt thou know, o ! vain man, that faith with- 
out works is dead .... For as the body ^thout 
the spirit is dead, so also faith without good 
works is dead.^JS 

Theoretical faith, or *^ faith alone,'' is only 
illuminative. It increases responsibility, while it 
does not force obedience to the revealed law. 
From the fact that it is above reason and enlight- 
ens it, it hightens guilt in the sinner, but does not 
restrain his will in the pursuit of evil. It follows, 
therefore, that a human being possessed of true 
faith, but devoid of charity, which is the life of his 
soul, can worship God and pray, can get drunk 
and steal, can lie and cheat, because he does not 

XXX James ii, 18-26. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds* i^g 

love God, and because lie does not love Him, he 
is out of His grace, and because he is out of 
His grace, his faith being dead, is of no profit 
to him. This is so evident, so logically true, 
that it is a wonder why its truth is not seen by 
the non-Catholic world. Its inherent truth illum- 
inates the world of man with heavenly light ; but 
the world of man does not behold this marvelous 
light because it is spiritually blind, and because it 
is weighted by the formidable v^eight of sin which 
destroys the equilibrium that exists between the 
soul and its Creator. To the practical Christian 
it is self-evident that the world of man has no 
spiritual vision, and owing to the absence of this, 
it has no hearing, no truth, no virtue, no fear of 
God; crude, animal gratification and material 
wealth, Avhich extinguish charity are its sovereign 
good. 

The actuality of purgatory is of faith. To deny 
its existence would sever us from the center of 
unity and sanctity, and leave us floating a.t random 
on the ocean of time without any propelling force 
to reach our last end. Purgatory is the temporary 
abode or state of those faithful souls, who, when 
the flickering flame of life went out, were indebted 
to Divine Justice for unrepented venial sins and 
the temporal punishment due to mortal sin, 
remitted as to its eternal guilt. God is so incon- 
ceivably holy, being the source of all holiness, that 
the faithful departed could not and would not if 
they could, enjoy His dazzling beauty, before they 



l6o The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

^!vere purified from the stains of sin. The Divine 
Perfections are so marvelously beautiful, that the 
faithful departed souls, through the force of their 
own volition, which is centered in the Divine, 
instantly go to purgatory, there to remain till 
they are cleansed from their sins. The motive 
force that acts upon their wills is the infinite 
purity of God, which does not allow a soul to 
enter heaven with the least stain of sin upon it. 

Where purgatory is we do not know; the 
Church has not defined its location. For the same 
reason, we know nothing of the nature of its fire, 
its intensity, or of the duration of the imprison- 
ment of its inmates. In the absence of a definition 
on these, its location and torturing nature are 
shrouded in mysterious darkness. Some writers 
on this state say that ^4t is a place; (locus) that 
it is in the earth, and that it is the upper stratum 
of hell.'' Others, that *4t is only a state which is 
extremely torturing, and that the intensity of its 
pain is mitigated, and the term of its suffering 
inmates is abbreviated through the devotion of 
the Church Militant in her works of mercy. To 
the first opinion I object, because it is not in 
accord with either my reason or my faith. My 
reason gives me the certainty which results from 
circumstantial evidence that it is not the upper 
stratum of hell. In as much as it is a purifying 
state of limited duration, it cannot be connected 
with hell that is of eternal existence. 

No writer nor sermonizer can induce my mind 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. i6z 

to accept the opinion that purgatory is the upper 
stratum of hell, and that its fire is the same as the 
fire of hell. No one, independent of direct revela- 
tion, has the right to locate this state in the nuc- 
leus of the earth. Opinion should not put on the 
raiment of divine revelation ; when it does it pro- 
duces no spiritual good. I do not believe that God, 
who is infinitely just, holy and loving, incarcerates 
His friends with His enemies, the prayerful with 
the blasphemous, the beautiful with the hedious, 
the attractive with the repulsive and the happy 
with the unhappy. As the souls in purgatory are 
members of the Church suffering, they are dear to 
God who loves them with infinite love, which 
forces me to deduce the conclusion that they are 
not in the company of the reprobate. Besides, 
out of hell there is no redemption, while out of 
purgatory there is. In the beautiful Church suffer- 
ing, there is no complaint against the justice of 
God, no cry, no murmur. A beautiful calm, a 
death-like silence, like those of primeval dawn, 
permeate this blessed region of God's creative love 
and mercy. This very mysterious Kingdom is a 
paradise of delights, because of the efficacy of 
hope, which silently and sv\reetly gives its suffering 
inmates the assurance that they will again see the 
beauty and enjoy the society of the Triune Deity. 
That there is a purgatory, or a middle state, in 
which souls indebted to God's justice are detained 
for a time, is of faith. The Council of Trent in its 
twenty-fifth session declared its existence, and 



l62 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

hence, all Christians are bound to accept this 
decree. If we examine this decision by the light of 
reason and religion, we will see its basis and 
accept it without the least mental dissent. 

We have already seen that the action of the 
atmosphere on a disembodied spirit, w^hile on its 
journey to the judgment seat of God, does not 
wash out trivial sins. We have further seen that 
the pain incident to death does not efface the 
stains imprinted on the soul by venial sin, and 
that ^^ faith alone ^' does not justify. Now, if noth- 
ing defiled shall enter into the kingdom of God,* 
and if there be no middle state, how is the 
Almighty going to dispose of our souls in the invis- 
ible Kingdom? As it is against His justice to 
sentence a soul to hell for a trivial offense, and 
against His sanctity to admit it into heaven, how 
is the all-important question to be answered. By 
the admission of an intermediate or purgatorial 
state. If a polyhedral angle be drawn, the moment 
it meets my vision, my mind forms the judgment 
that it is the divergence of three or more planes 
from the point formed by their common intersec- 
tion. Why do I form this judgment? Because the 
nature of the angle essentially demands it. By a 
parity of reasoning, the moment the fall and 
redemption of man, the justice, mercy and holiness 
of God, who renders to each one according to his 
works y act on my mind it forms the judgment 
affirmatory of the existence of a middle state. 

* Apoc. xxi, 27. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 163 

Why? Because the goodness of God and the wants 
of disembodied spirits in the invisible Kingdom 
demand it. It is a postulate of reason and 
revealed religion, and therefore, must be accepted. 

So impressed were the Jews with belief in the 
existence of a middle state that their chief, Judas 
Machabees, according to custom, ^*sent twelve 
thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacri- 
fice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking 
well and religiously concerning the resurrection. 
And because he considered that they v/ho had 
fallen asleep in godliness, had great grace laid up 
for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome 
thought to pray for the dead that they may he 
loosed from sinsy^ But this scriptural quotation 
is not found in the Lutheran Bible. No, nor in 
any edition of the Protestant Bible. It ^was 
eliminated by Luther for the reason that it antag- 
onized his theory of justification by ^^ faith 
alone.'* When Luther ignored this dogma of the 
Christian faith, he attempted to make God a liar, 
and to involve Himself in a contradiction with 
Himself. 

St. Paul says : *^ Now if any man build on this 
foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, 
hay, stuble ; every man's work ^hall be made 
manifest, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and 
fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 
If any man's work abide, which he had built 
thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's 

* ii, Mach., xii, 43-46. 



164 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

work burn, he shall suffer loss ; but he himself shall 
be saved, yet so as by fire/'"^ 

The foundation spoken of here, is Christ and 
His holy doctrine, or true faith enlivened by 
charity. ^^ If any man build, etc.'' In this instance 
the Apostle speaks metaphorically. He compares 
true faith vivified by charity to the material that 
enters into a building. An edifice composed of non- 
inflammable material will not yield to the force 
of fire, and hence, its owner will suffer no loss. A 
building composed of non-inflammable and inflam- 
mable material will yield to the force of the flames, 
and its owner will suffer loss. The silver, the gold 
and the precious stones that entered into the for- 
mation of the spiritual building, signify the prac- 
tice of the Gospel truths and the Christian virtues. 
They also signify true ^wisdom which seeks God 
above all things, while the wood, hay and stubble 
indicate venial sin and the temporal punishment 
due to mortal sin remitted as to eternal punish- 
ment. ^^For the day of the Lord, etc.'' The day 
of the Lord spoken of here, may mean the fiery 
ordeal the soul goes through in the particular 
judgment, or it may signify the day {hemera) of 
general judgment, ^which will be a fiery, judicial 
examination of each man's work, of what sort it 
is, or it may indicate the burning, intolerable pain 
which results from the desire to enjoy the Beatific 
Vision. While the soul is being judged, it obtains a 
view of God's glory and beauty, and these are so 

* i. Corin. iii, 11, 15. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 16$ 

rapturously attractive that it experiences the pain 
of hell, till its desire is satisfied. ^^ But he himself 
shall be saved, yet so as by fire;^^ that is, he 
shall be saved, because he built on a right foun- 
dation, but his trivial sins will be effaced by the 
purifying force of fire, which proves that sin is 
remitted in the invisible v^orld, and therefore, that 
there is a purgatory. It matters not whether we 
construe the language as referring to the par- 
ticular or general judgment, since in both, sins are 
effaced through the agency of fire. To attempt to 
investigate the nature of this purifying fire, w^ould 
be folly, because it is shut out from our mental 
research. It may be the fiery justice of the Supreme 
Judge, or that fire that will disintegrate the mate- 
rial beings of the world on the close of time. 

But infidelity has asked me more than once : 
**How could w^orks burn?'' They could not and 
cannot, because, in themselves, they are imma- 
terial. St. Paul speaks metonymically ; he uses a 
trope in which one thing is taken for another. The 
effect for its cause, the act for its agent, the work 
for its operator and the operator for the work. If 
agnostics, materialists and atheists were honest 
they would not find fault with the ordinary law of 
language used by St. Paul. There is not one of us 
that does not, from time to time, write and speak 
figuratively. The use of figurative language in 
this instance is commensurate with logical science, 
notwithstanding the testimony of infidels to the 
contrary. 



j66 The Visible andlnvisible Worlds, 

That sin is forgiven in the next world, is evident 
from the language of the Redeemer wlio said: 
'^ And v^hosoever shall speak a word against the 
Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but he that 
shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not 
be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the 
world to come.^^'^'^'^ From this testimony it is 
certain that sin is remitted in the invisible w^orld, 
and therefore, that there is a middle state. 

On another occasion the Redeemer said: ^^Make 
an agreement with thy adversary whilst thou art 
in the way with him, lest, perhaps, the adversary 
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver 
thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. 
Amen, I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from 
thence, till thou payest the last farthing. ''f 

^' Make an agreement with thy adversary whilst 
thou art in the way;'^ that is, while you enjoy 
life, or while you are journeying through time to 
eternity. Who is this adversary? Conscience, or 
the moral sense, or the intuition, or the intellectual 
form that exists intrinsically in human nature, 
and hence, kno^srs that v^henever will-force is 
improperly employed sin ^vvill result. Then, against 
the dictates of conscience we must not act ; if we 
do, even in trivial matters, it will accuse us of the 
same before a just Judge, who will sentence our 
souls to purgatory, out of which they will not go 
till the justice of God is satisfied. Those who die 
in mortal sin are sentenced to hell for all eternity. 

*** Matt, xii, 32. 
t Ibid. V, 25, 26. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 167 

As the malice of their sin is infinite, its punishment 
will be eternal, and hence there will be no release, 
because the reprobate cannot pay to the last 
farthing. 

If it were necessary I could insert here copious 
extracts from the writings of the Greek and Latin 
Fathers expressive of their belief in the existence 
of purgatory, but it is not. The saintly mother of 
St. Augustin said in her last moments that *^she 
did not care where her remains would be interred, 
provided her soul was remembered at the altar.'' 
She believed with her holy Mother, the Church, 
that the Unbloody Sacrifice of Mount Calvary, or, 
the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, being of infinite 
value, is the most efiicacious means that could be 
employed to alleviate and abbreviate the sufferings 
of the souls in purgatory. 

Now, has not civil society its purgatory. Does 
not our law prescribe the duration of the term in 
this penal abode ? Those who violate our laws are 
committed for a period of time proportioned to 
the gravity of their offense. If the preservation 
and dignity of civil society in the world of man 
demand the existence of a temporary prison, 
should not the purity, holiness and justice of God 
demand one, too, in the invisible kingdom ? In as 
much as the visible world is a reflex of the invis- 
ible, there is unity, as regards the existence of a 
middle state, penal in its nature. 

As before noted, where purgatory is we do not 
know^, and hence, it would be folly to speculate on 



i68 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

its location. Although this is true, yet an opinion 
can be advanced, as to its location or plane of 
existence, which may be accepted or rejected by 
the Christian reader. It has been my opinion for 
years that the Church suffering is in our midst; 
that its plane of suffering is co-extensive with the 
expansion of the Church militant; that our 
churches and our residences have their quota of 
suffering souls, who, in the silent language of love, 
of charity and of suffering, ask for assistance. 
They imploringly beg us to mitigate the flames of 
burning desire to see and enjoy God, that consume 
them without annihilating them. They beg us 
through the ties of kindred, through the love we 
entertained towards them while on this earth, 
through the charity of religion and through the 
love we bear towards God to apply to them the 
Holy Sacrifice and all the satisfaction of the 
Redeemer. They cannot merit, we can and since 
we can, let us apply this to them. If we do, we 
promote the joy of the suffering souls and the 
interests of the Almighty, whose justice and love 
called this state into existence. The measure we 
give those suffering, holy souls, we will get back 
when we ourselves w^ill be inmates of this pain- 
ful prison. As we hope to find mercy, let us be 
merciful, and then, all will be right. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Hell— What called it into existence ?— Is it 
a place or a state of punishment? — is it 
located in the nucleus of our planet?— is 

ITS FIRE PHYSICAL? — CaN MATERIAL FIRE ACT 
UPON A DISEMBODIED SPIRIT?— ThE DARKNESS 

OF HELL— What has induced this? — The 
PAINS OF HELL— Their eternal duration? 
— Could hell be outside stellar space?— 
Eyil spirits on earth— Temptation ? 

In this chapter I do not ask with the infidel, 
the question : ''Is there a hell?'' No, as there is a 
heaven, so too there is a hell; and as there is in the 
invisible worlds everlasting happiness, so is there 
eternal misery. These extremes result from the 
nature of sin unto death and sanctity, which can 
never coalesce. God is so infinitely pure, holy and 
just, that a soul that departs out of this life, 
weighted with mortal sin, cannot be united to Him 
in eternity, and hence the necessity of a place or a 
state of eternal punishment. The Church, guided 
by the Holy Spirit, infallibly teaches that there is 
a hell, and that those who die in mortal sin are 
sentenced to it for all eternity. 

I have already stated that, when God created 
the angels they were pure and holy, because He 

was in them and with them by habitual grace ; 

169 



Z'JO The Visible and divisible Worlds. 

that, to teach them the value of the gifts they 
received and their dependence on Him for the con- 
tinuance of these, tjaey were put on probation, and 
that, through pride, it is supposed, one-third of 
them fell, and were eternally separated from their 
Creator. I have further stated that, when He 
created man. He endued Him with natural and 
supernatural gifts which rendered his soul harmo- 
nious with itself and with its Creator ; that he 
was put on probation and fell ; that by his fall, 
which resulted from the deflection of his will 
from the divine Will, he made hell for himself, and 
would be therein now, if he did no penance ; that 
the fall of the angels called hell into existence, and 
that, if the angels and primal man ^went through 
their probationary period v^ithout offending God 
by sin, there would be no hell. If the angels did 
not fall, it might have been that Adam would not 
have eaten of the forbidden fruit, because there 
would be no evil spirit to tempt him, or to induce 
his will to act in opposition to the Divine Will. 
However, if he used the grace bestowed on him, 
it ivould have given him strength to withstand 
the force of the temptation, but he did not ; he 
allowed, as many of his posterity do, ^^ death to 
climb up by the windows ''* of his body into his 
soul to accomplish its ruin. 

The existence of hell gives us the certainty that 
its inmates will be eternally separated from God, 
who is the light and glory of heaven ; and this 

Jer., ix, 21. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. lyi 

generates an undying worm in the damned souls 
which will gnaw and torment them forever. This 
tormenting, gnawing worm is the bitter remorse 
of conscience which results from the knowledge, 
always present to the damned, that through their 
own fault, for a transient gratification, they lost 
an Infinite Good — God, forever. 

When a human being, with the knowledge of 
his intellect, with the consent of his will and with 
a knowledge of the end, commits mortal sin, he 
becomes the enemy of God, and, should he die in 
this state, he will be lost. , But the scofier of 
Christianity — the materialist who deifies matter, 
the evolutionist who asserts that man evolved 
from an animal, and the atheist who regards the 
universe as the result of chance, objects to my 
reasoning, on the ground that, ^^ between a finite 
act and its punishment of eternal duration, there 
is no relation, and therefore that, if there be a 
God, He is cruel and unjust to punish an act of 
momentary duration with eternal punishment. 

Why do not infidels who so often flap their 
wings on the clouds of empty negation, condemn 
society and its laws which inflict capital punish- 
ment for the commission of henious crimes. 
Although the act was momentary, yet its punish- 
ment is either death or imprisonment for life. If 
infidelity were blessed with the light of faith it 
would see that the malice of mortal sin is infinite 
in its nature, because it is an insult offered to an 
infinitely holy, just and perfect Being, and there- 



7/2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

fore, merits punishment eternal in duration. As 
man is a limited being, he could not suffer pain 
infinite in intensity, and hence, God inflicts punish- 
ment on him endless in duration. 

Throughout the holy Scriptures, wherever hell 
is mentioned, the term, fire, is connected with it, 
and firom the frequent use of the word, the fire of hell 
is accepted by many writers and preachers on this 
state as material, the same that exists in the nuc- 
leus of our earth. Before I examine this conclu- 
sion, I will briefly state that the signification of 
the word ^^ fire,'' is manyfold in our language. We 
use the w^ord to express the ardor of love or 
hatred, the liveliness of imagination, the intensity 
of fever and the exhiliration caused by alcohol 
when received into the human body, after being 
ignited by oxygen. In none of these do we attri- 
bute to it the nature and force of physical fire. 
But I may be told that it is otherwise in the holy 
Scriptures ; that the term, when tised in the 
inspired Word, is of the same force and nature as 
is that of material fire, and therefore, that it is 
the equivalent and congener of this material ele- 
ment. Not always. The ^'therefore'' is' false. The 
word, fire, used in the holy Scriptures is, in many 
instances, remote from our conception of earthly 
fire. For instance, the angel that appeared to 
Moses out of the midst of a bush, in a flame of 
fire;"^ the fire that lit up Mount Sinai when he 
received the Commandments;** the sight of the 

* Exodus, iii, 2. 
** Ibid, xix, 18. 



The Visible afid Invisible Worlds, lyj 

glory of God which was like a burning fire upon 
thje top of the Mount f"^^ the fire that came from 
the Lord and devoured the holocaust ;t the fire 
that came down from heaven and consumed two 
captains with their men ;tt the fiery chariot that 
carried Elias up to heaven or into space, Iff and the 
fire that consumed the sinful cities of Sodom and 
Gomorrah, $ was not material fire, and hence, was 
not the equivalent of material fire. 

If the Holy Scriptures be examined, it will be 
found that there are many words used which do 
not mean what they express, being purely phenom- 
enal. We have seen that the immensurable periods 
of creation vrere called days;^ that the firmament 
is called beaven;^^ that lawful wives were called 
concubineSyW and that the divine guide who led 
the wise men from the East to Jerusalem, is named 
a star.§ In the third chapter of Genesis and 
eighth verse, the voice of the Lord is recorded as 
walking- at the afternoon air. At this Hebraism 
agnostics laugh and charge Moses with stupidity. 
But the passage does not excite laughter; it is per- 
fectly correct, being a phenomenal rendition of a 
veritable fact that has existed. If agnostics were 
as familiar with true science as they are with hos- 
tility to the Word of God, they would acknov/l- 
edge that voice does walk through the medium of 
the atmosphere. Of all books written, the Holy 
Scriptures are the most difiicult to understand and 

*** Kxodus, xxiv, 17. ttt iv Kings, ii, 11. ** Gen. i, 15. 

t I^evit. ix, 24, t Gen. xix, 24. || Judg. xix, 24. 

ft iv Kings, i, 14. * Idid. i, 13. § Matt, ii, 2. 



77^ The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

to explain. From a misconception and a conse- 
quent false interpretation of them, a vast number 
of the human family have become spiritually 
blind, and hence wander in the desert of error. 

As the Church has rendered no decision on the 
location of hell, or on the nature of its fire, I am 
free to give those questions an examination, and 
place the same before my readers for acceptance or 
rejection. Then, in the investigation I shall make, 
I hope that no one will conclude that I moot the 
questions through a love of notoriety. No, indeed, 
this is not my motive. In the existence of hell, in 
the intensity of its pain and its eternal duration I 
believe, as I do in the existence of heaven and its 
endless joys, but I cannot reconcile with my 
reason the assertions of those who say that ^4t is 
located in the earth, and that its fire is material.'' 
Besides, from the nature of my work, those sub- 
jects come within its scope, and hence, I am forced 
to treat them philosophically. To glance at them 
superficially, ^would not be doing my duty, and to 
subscribe to the mere opinions of others ^which are 
not sustained by testimony, would be servility. 

Without intending a digression, I will note 
here, that in a controversy I had with three 
agnostics and a Universalist minister, among the 
many questions argued were those of pargatory 
and hell. The Universalist driven to extremes on 
his denial of a middle state, asserted that ^Hhe 
human soul was purified by the action of the 
atmosphere, during her journey through space to 



The Visible a?id' Invisible Worlds, //j 

the judgment seat of God/' This I denied and 
proved that a material element could not act on a 
disembodied spirit, because it possessed no quality 
that belonged to matter. Upon this statement 
being made, my agnostics said : *^ Then, ho^w could 
the fire of hell, which is, according to the teaching 
of the Catholic Church, a molten, material sea, 
act upon a damned soul?'' I replied that the 
Church did not so teach; that up to this she 
rendered no decision on the location of hell or on 
the nature of its fire ; that the received opinion is, 
that it is a fire of some kind, and that she did not 
hold herself responsible for the opinions of men on 
the subject, which Avas an open one. 

The existence of hell, its intense pain, the 
writhings, moans and utter dispair of its inmates, 
are truths divinely revealed, but its location and 
the nature of its fire are enveloped in mysterious 
darkness. Although this is true, yet some clergy- 
men in the v^armth of their zeal for God's honor 
and glory, and through a hatred of sin, have 
transcended the bounds of reason and the require- 
ments of faith by locating it in the earth, and by 
materializing its fire, and by so doing, have 
exposed the awfully sublime dogma to the sneers 
of infidelity. 

The language used by some writers and preach- 
ers in depicting hell and its torments, is objection- 
able, because, very often, entirely inapplicable. 
For instance, in a work entitled, Adjumenta Ora- 

toris Sa cri.X the following is quoted as applying to 

J p. 241. 



jy6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

hell and the damned, ** As much as she hath glori- 
fied herself, and hath been in delicacies, so much 
torments and sorrow give unto her."* This lan- 
guage refers to the punishment inflicted upon the 
proud, sinful city of Babylon prior to her fall, 
rather than to the damned. A \^ork, entitled 
Preparation for Death,*"^ quotes the following 
as applying to the reprobate : '^ Out of their car- 
casses there shall rise a stink. "^^^ Every one shall 
eat the flesh of his own arm.f They shall sufier 
hunger like dogs.'^tt Iii this work St. Bonaventure 
is quoted as saying that, ^* if the body of one of 
the damned were placed on the earth, it -would be 
suflicient to cause the death of all men through its 
stench." 

The language of Isaias introduced here, does 
not refer to hell or its torments. It has reference 
to the wicked in this life, and especially to the 
incredulous Jews who rejected and crucified our 
Lord, and by way of punishment, during the siege 
of Jerusalem, were forced to feed on human flesh. 
The stink in the besieged city, from decomposed 
animal and human bodies, was horrible. Out of 
the carcasses of the damned a *^ stink " could not 
rise in hell, because there are no bodies there yet. 
For the same reason the damned could not eat the 
flesh off their arms. I grant that the reprobate 
suffer hunger, but deny that they hunger for mate- 
rial food. It is not in the nature of things that 
disembodied spirits could partake of material 

* Apoc. xviii, 7. *** Is. xxxiv, 3. ff Ps. Iviii, 15, 

** p. 264. E)d. Centen. f Ibid, ix, 20. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 777 

food. The hunger of the damned is spiritual. 
They hunger and thirst for the Infinite Good — the 
Almighty, whom they lost by sin, and as they can 
never enjoy the marvelous beauty of His counten- 
ance and the glory of His Kingdom, their hunger 
and thirst will be of eternal duration. If Saint 
Bonaventureused the language attributed to him, 
he must have had the condition of the bodies of 
the damned present to his mind, after general 
judgment. Certainly, human bodies which decom- 
pose in our cemeteries, can emit no stink in hell, 
because none of them are there yet. The sentence 
pronounced on Adam was: ''Dust thou art, and 
into dust thou shalt return.''* As this sentence is 
being daily verified, it follows that there is no 
human dust in hell, and therefore, no eating of 
human flesh there. 

In a work entitled, the ProdigaIv Son, the fol- 
lowing is applied to the damned* ''Every one of 
them is lying fastened as it were in a coflSn not 
made of wood, but of solid iron. There the repro- 
bate lies, and will lie forever. It bums him from 
beneath; the sides of it scorch him; the heavy 
burning lid on top presses down close upon him; 
the horrible heat within chokes him. He pants 
for breath; he cannot breathe; he cannot bear it. 
He gets furious. He gathers up his knees and 
pushes out his hands against the top of the coffin 
to burst it open. His hands and knees are fear- 
fully burned by the red-hot lid. He tries with all 

* Gen. iii, 19. 



Z'/S The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

his strength to burst open the coffin, but he 
cannot succeed. He has no strength remaining. 
He gives it up and sinks down again to feel once 
more the horrible choking. The fire burns through 
every bone and every muscle. Every nerve is 
trembling and quivering with the sharp flame. ''f 

Between this scrap of ^^ theology '' and reason 
there is antagonism. Reason will not accept it, 
while faith intuitively turns away from it. How 
the iron coffins Avorked their way into hell, we are 
not told, but we are impressively informed of the 
repeated, vain efforts of the animated bodies 
within them to get released. Verily, such stuff 
should neither be written for, nor preached to 
rational beings. 

The individual who preached to his congrega- 
tion that *^hell is a limitless ocean of fire which is 
located in the earth," should be more mathemat- 
ical in the expression of his ideas, because a limited 
body could not contain a limitless one, unless we 
accept the absurdity that a part contains the 
whole. If hell be a limitless ocean of fire, it 
cannot be in the earth. Although we cannot 
limit space, yet we cannot admit that it is limit- 
less. We can only admit of one limitless, infinite 
Being — God, who rules hell by His justice, and the 
universe by His laws. 

The placing of human bodies in hell before 
general judgment, results from, a misconception, 
or from the literal acceptance of the sixteenth 

t pp. 248-249. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. j/p 

chapter and nineteenth verse of St. Luke, which 
reads as follows : ^* There was a certain rich man, 
who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and 
feasted sumptuously every day. And there was a 
certain beggar, by name Lazarus, who lay at his 
gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the 
crumbs which fell from the rich man's table; and 
no one did give him; moreover, the dogs came 
and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the 
beggar died and was carried by angels into Abra- 
ham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and 
he was buried in hell. And, lifting up his tj^s^ 
when he was in torments, he saw Abraham afar 
off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and 
said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and 
send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger 
in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in 
this flame." 

But if the body of the rich man were not in 
hell, how is the language of the Redeemer to be 
understood? The Lord Jesus spoke synecdoch- 
ically. He used a trope by taking a part for the 
whole. He prefigured the suffering the human 
body will undergo when reunited to its soul, if 
condemned to hell. As the soul animates the body 
while united to it on this earth, so will it in hell, 
and hence, the complex being will experience the 
pains of hell. The soul will communicate its 
sufferings to the body, and the body to the souL 
Their relation to each other will be the same as it 
was on this earth, but their joint sensibility vrill 



l8o The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

be greater. Every attribute of the soul, every 
faculty and organ of the body ^vill be tortured in 
hell during an endless eternity. Oh! what a 
dreadful, terrible reality ; what an awful, astound- 
ing truth, and yet, what little impression it makes 
on the minds of hardened sinners. 

Without doubt the language is figurative, be- 
cause the disembodied spirit of the rich man had 
neither material vision nor tongue, and hence, it 
could neither see nor speak, after the manner of 
human beings. But, inasmuch as it was a spirit, 
it could see another and hold conversation Avith it. 
Now, as the soul of the rich man had no material 
vision, so too, Lazarus had no fingers and Abra- 
ham had no bosom. The language demonstrates 
that hell will be the abode of the rich who worship 
mammon, wallow in luxury and sensuality, and 
who shut their ears against the appeals of the 
hungry and naked poor, while heaven will be the 
abiding place of the charitable, the merciful and 
all those who suffer persecution for justice sake, 
and who endure with Christian resignation the 
pangs of poverty and sickness. 

The figure may have reference, also, to the Jews 
who, although rich in faith as to the advent of 
Redeemer, yet when he did come, rejected Him, 
while the Gentiles, prefigured by Lazarus, although 
destitute of this light, received Him, worshipped 
Him, and offered to Him in His lowly state, gifts 
which silently declared His divinity and humanity. 
" He came to his own and his own received him 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, i8i 

not/'* What a stigma on the nobility of the 
Jewish people, so favored during the existence of 
the Old Law by the Almighty. 

It will be granted, because true, that many 
who have written and preached on hell, have 
located it in the earth at a depth of three miles. 
Of this opinion was Cornelius a Lapide, who 
wrote commentaries on the scriptures. Whether 
by actual measurement or conjecture he arrived at 
this conclusion, he does not say. He merely states 
the fact in his commentaries, without advancing 
any proof to sustain it. His statement I do not 
accept, because it is at variance with physical sci- 
ence which teaches, and truthfully that the crust of 
our planet descends more than three miles into its 
nucleus. If the crust of the earth were but three 
miles in depth, it w^ould, as before stated, yield 
with the earth's rotation and fall into its fiery 
nucleus. If the earth's crust were not more than 
three miles in thickness, could it sustain the 
weight of those mountain ranges that exist on its 
surface at an elevation of from 4000 to 13,000 
feet above the sea-level? The Atlas Alountains 
along the coast of Guinea, the Andes, the Brazilian 
Mountains, the Himalayas, the Appalachian and 
the Rocky Mountains require a more solid founda- 
tion to rest on than a shell three miles thick. 

Be the case as it may, I do not admit that hell 
is located in the nucleus of our planet, because it 
is mathematically certain that it is cooling, and 

*John, i, II. 



l82 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

that in lapse of time, its total refrigeration will 
ensue. From the continued expenditure of radia- 
tion, through volcanic action, a million of years 
from now, it will be a mass as solid as steel. Then, 
if hell be located in the earth, how can we account 
for its eternal duration. Not only is our planet 
cooling, but the center of our solar system, also. 
The cooling of the sun is not so perceptible, as is 
that of the earth, owing to its immense mass of 
fiery, molten matter. 

Besides the cooling influence of volcanos on the 
earth's nucleus, science demonstrates that the 
motion of tidal ^waves and that of the earth called 
into action two forces which act in opposite direc- 
tions, or which antagonize each other. The earth 
moves from west to east, and the waves from east 
to west. This ^wave-force, from friction, retards the 
motion of the earth, and the retardation lenghtens 
the day which causes a shrinkage or a depression 
of the earth's crust, and a consequent reduction of 
temperature. In the face of those facts which 
physical science proves to a certainty, ho^w can 
any one assert that hell is located in the earth and 
that its fire is material. From the following it 
seems that the death-knell of time sounded in the 
ears of St. John. 

** And the angel which I saw standing upon the 
sea, and upon the land, lifted up his hand to 
heaven ; and he swore by him that liveth forever 
and ever, who created heaven and the things 
which are therein; and the earth and the things 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 183 

^which are therein; and the sea and the things 
which are therein ; that time shall be no more.'^* 

When time ceases to be, motion, heat and form 
will cease to be, also. Yes, our solar system and 
every body in space will cease to be; then, if hell 
be located in the earth, ^what sort of existence will 
it have? When the earth is destroyed, what 
becomes of its physical fire ? 

But the Holy Scriptures teach that the earth 
after being destroyed, will be rebuilt. ^^ Behold, I 
make all things new."t During the rebuilding of 
the earth, if hell be a place {locus), where will it 
be ? If I admit that hell is located in the earth, I 
admit that which I can not prove, because I can 
not conceive how a thing or a circumscribed place 
endless in duration, can exist or be contained in 
that w^hich is doomed to destruction, or a change 
of form. 

If the ^^ exterior darkness,^ 'ft into which the 
unprofitable servant was cast, be ^^ outside the 
celestial Kingdom," as Cornelius a Lapide states, 
then hell is not in the earth, but in space. The 
exterior darkness spoken of here, may signify spirit- 
ual, and not corporeal darkness. It may have 
reference to the deplorable state of the habitual 
sinner, whose soul is bUnded by the continuous 
shadows of sin, till in the end, the scinders of faith, 
that so long smouldered, die, and then there will be 
spiritual desolation which will be followed by 

* Apoc. X, 5, 6. 
t Apoc. xxi, 5. 
ft Matt. XXV, 30. 



184. The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

** weeping and gnashing of teeth.'' Of course this 
is my own view, for which neither the Church nor 
the CathoHc body are responsible. St. Augustin, 
in his comments on the sixth psalm, accepts this 
exterior darkness as that of mind, or spiritual 
blindness. 

If hell be located in the earth, its fire is 
material. If I admit this I can not prove it. As a 
theological problem, it does not admit of a solu- 
tion, owing to the mysterious darkness that 
envelopes it. Although this is true, yet Hurter, a 
theologian, teaches that it is in the earth {snh 
terra); that its fire is material and that it w^ould 
be *'rash" to deny these. Temerarium foret a 
communi recedere sententiaMi 

Now, w^as there not a time in the history of our 
civilization when it would be considered ^^rash" 
to deny the geocentric theory? Was there not a 
time when the majority of Christians believed that 
the sun, the moon and the stars revolved around 
the earth, and that its depth was proportional to 
its distance from heaven. But these were denied 
and the denial was sustained by truthful argu- 
ment; for now it is accepted as the moral and 
intellectual center of the universe and nothing 
more. 

The teaching of some theologians cannot induce 
my mind to accept an opinion for a dogma of 
faith. To the Church, guided by the Holy Ghost, 
belongs the act of defining what is, and what is 

ttt Hur. de inferno, p, 712. 



The Visible a?id Invisible Worlds, i8j 

not, a dogma of faith. I am well aware that 
when the sense or meaning of a principle is unani- 
mously fixed by theologians, it would be ^^rash*' 
to oppose my judgment to their's. But when their 
decision is not a unit, and when that of the Saints 
is not in unison with Hurter, on the location of 
hell, and on the nature of its fire, I have a right to 
dissent from his opinion. St. Thomas says that 
^'hell is under the earth {sub terra) ^ as is the joy of 
the elect in heaven.'^* 

If we examine the force of the term, sub^ we 
find that it means ^^ under, below or beneath.*' 
When used as a prefix, it signifies within; but when 
employed to express the existence of anything in 
space, it means below, beneath, under, as in the 
sentence, nibil sub sole novum, ^^ there is nothing 
ne^w under the sun.*' In English ^^hen the word is 
used as a prefix, it signifies within the crust of the 
earth. It is doubtful whether St. Thomas used 
sub as a prefix, notwithstanding the testimony of 
some writers to the contrary. Huper in Greek, 
which is of the same force with sub in Latin, 
means *' below, beneath, under,*' and hence the 
conclusion can be deduced from the sub terra of St. 
Thomas that hell is in immensurable space. 

We know, and we have a certainty of the same, 
from the testimony of science, that the path of 
our planet around its center is in space, and there- 
fore, that beneath it as well as around it is one 
vast expanse of space in which bodies are balanced 

* Comp., Quest. 7, p. 653. 



l86 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

by the force of gravitation. As a further proof 
that hell is not in the earth: the man who had not 
on the wredding garment ^^was bound hands and 
feet, and cast into exterior darkness, not interior^ 
where there was ^weeping and gnashing of teeth, "f 
Wherever hell is, its pain results from intense heat 
and cold, for those elements enter into it according 
to holy Job, who says: ^^Let him pass from the 
snow waters to excessive heat, and his soul even 
to hell.^^$ The weeping and gnashing of teeth 
demonstrate that, not only the extremes of heat 
and cold enter into the pains of hell, but fierce rage 
because of the loss of an Infinite Good. To these 
the justice of God adds a torturing fire of some- 
kind vastly more cruciating than physical fire. 
The justice of God is a thousand times more tor- 
turing to the reprobate than are the rays of the 
sun to the denizens of the tropics. As the light of 
His holiness pervades all heaven, so does the burn- 
ing flame of His justice all hell. 

If we submit physical fire to a scientific exam- 
ination, we find that it is light and heat in con- 
junction, and that the heat, which is invisible and 
imponderable, acts upon all bodies in proximity 
to it. Heat viewed abstractively, has no material 
existence, because it is one of the forces of nature. 
And, although the nature of heat is such, yet it 
acts on material bodies only. So soon as heat 
comes into the field of sense, we know the efiects 
it produces on matter, and beyond these we are in 

t Matt, xxii, 13. 
t Job xxiv, 19. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, iSy 

the dark as to its nature. If we assert that physical 
fire acts upon a disembodied spirit, we cannot 
prove the assertion, because a spirit has no quality 
that belongs to matter, and therefore, matter 
cannot act upon it. 

Now of the fact we are certain that material 
fire is violent in its nature and terrible in its effects, 
and that its destructive force subsides when it has 
nothing material to act upon. We are further 
certain that, after it destroys the body on which 
it feeds, itself expires, because its force and dura- 
tion are limited. These facts being true, it is hard 
to accept the opinion that the ^^ fire of hell is cor- 
poreal. '^ As the fire of hell was called into exist- 
ence for vengence, it must be eternal in duration, 
and more intense in torturing action than material 
fire, which disintegrates by reducing a compound 
to its simples, while the fire of hell does not. The 
fire of hell burns and tortures its victims without 
consuming them. From this it will be seen that 
the action of both fires is dissimilar, and hence, 
that they are not of one and the same nature. Of 
this opinion were Origen,^ Saints Jerome, ^ Am- 
brose, ^ and John Damacenus.^ Those eminent 
writers, after a critical examination of the ques- 
tion, came to the conclusion that the fire of hell is 
not of the same nature of physical fire. St. 
Thomas says : '' The fire of hell which will torture 
the bodies of the damned, is corporeal, but, inas- 

1 Horn., 9 ad diver sos, et tracts 34 in Matt 

2 In cap, 65, 66 Jesai. 

3 In comm, in cap, 14 IvUC. 

4 I^ib.,4, de fide, cap, ult. 



i88 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

much as it is an instrument of divine justice, it 
must be distinguished in some of its properties 
from earthly fire/^* He does not point out or 
describe the nature of those properties which must 
be distinguished from physical fire. I suppose he 
could not because their nature was not made 
known to him by direct revelation. 

Hell is not only intensely painful, but dark. It 
is dark, because the bright rays of celestial glory 
do not illumine it. It is dark, because sadness, 
sorrow and dispair curtain it with their gloomy 
folds. It is dark, because it is the abiding state or 
place of rebellion against God, of sin unto death. 
One sin of pride called hell into existence, made it 
an abyss of horror, a region of woe, ^^a land of 
misery and darkness, where the shadow of death, 
and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth.'^f 

On this dreary state St. Jude writes: *^And 
the angels who kept not their principalities, but 
forsook their own habitations, he reserved in 
everlasting chains under darkness . ' '$ 

The malice and deformity of mortal sin shut 
out from the vision of the reprobate the marvel- 
ously beautiful face of God and the glory of His 
Kingdom forever. Oh ! what a destroying mon- 
ster mortal sin is ; how intensely punished it is 
in the invisible world, and yet, with what com- 
placency mortals commit it, and after they have 
committed it, what little fear its presence creates 
in their conscience. 

* Supp. quest, 97. 
t Job, X, 22. 
X Jude, 6. 



The Visible and Itivisible Wo7'lds. i8g 

In the world of man, we can plainly see that 
habitual sin obscures the beauty of countenance 
and the glare of religion as effectually as do murky 
clouds the sun's light. The soft gaze of a Christian, 
whose soul is illuminated by faith, hope, charity, 
purity and truth, the habitual sinner cannot 
endure, because it awakens his conscience from its 
sinful slumber. Although this is true, yet by a 
blindness peculiar to his hideous state, the sha- 
dowy, dismal, boisterous ocean of death that 
surges at his feet, has no chilling tide for him. Its 
angry, crested billows, which are about to sub- 
merge him, and consign his soul to hell, create no 
fear in his heart. Why? Because to fear he is 
insensible ; he so many times turned away from 
God and refused grace which was wafted to him 
o'er the ocean of divine mercy, that faith fled from 
his soul, without leaving the least glimmer to 
illumine it, and hence, the enormity of his sins he 
does see, and hence, too, he has no fear of God, or 
of his rigorous judgment in the invisible world. 

Now, as the human eye sees material objects 
through the vibrations of light which act upon its 
retina, so do the elect see God through the light 
He reflects. As the reprobates are removed from 
this light, they are truly in darkness. The mar- 
velous light of God is to His Kingdom and its 
citizens what the light of the sun is to our planet 
and its inhabitants, an unspeakable joy, because 
through its force, its source and surrounding 
objects become visible. As those deprived of 



igo The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds, 

material vision do not enjoy the light of the sun, 
so too, those Tv-ho are condemned to hell see not 
God, and therefore, hell is said to be dark, God in 
His own Kingdom is a luminous Center, whose 
rays gleam far and wide through the empyrean 
heavens and forms a radiant crown for the angels 
and saints, through ^which they see Him. 

If the soft, glorious flashes of Uncreated Light 
were to gleam in hell, its hideous, forbidding dark- 
ness would be changed into the dazzling glory and 
blinding light of heaven. But this is impossible, 
because it is the abiding state of mortal sin. Ah ! 
how foolish all those act, how dead to a sense of 
their own ivelfare in the invisible w^orld, who feel 
happy in their sins ; who live from day to day^ 
from month to month and from year to year 
enemies of their Creator and Judge. 

We say that a man is spiritually blind who has 
no faith, and so he is, because he does not see God 
in his own light; that is, in and through the light 
of faith. By a parity of argument the soul 
eternally removed from God is blind, because a 
ray of His light will never vibrate on its spiritual 
vision. But, here, I am forced to make a digres- 
sion for tlie benefit of my non-Catholic readers. A 
man who has no faith can acquire the certainty, 
through the light of reason, that God exists, from 
the relation of cause and effect, but, inasmuch as 
he cannot, through this light, obtain his ultimate 
end, he requires faith, which must be enlivened by 
charity. If it be not, it is dead, and therefore, of 



The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds, igi 

no value. Reason, then, without faith, is like 
light without a medium of transmission; for, 
without faith it is impossible to please God, Rea- 
son wdthout faith dazzles but does not direct. It 
does not direct, because it is darkened by sin 
through the disobedience of primal man. If rea- 
son attempt to treat the supernatural, independ- 
ent of faith, it leaves its tracks in the sand to be 
washed away by the next rain. How can reason 
acquire a knowledge of the supernatural in all its 
complexity, w^hen it is ignorant of the essence of so 
tiny a creature as an animalculum? What, then, 
of its high pretentions ? It cannot lead, it cannot 
direct the soul, and it cannot prescribe the medi- 
cine necessary for it during its journey through 
time to eternity. If the soul be sick, reason is not 
its doctor. What else, then, faith and grace? 
Although reason deals in philosophic quantities, 
in abstractions and specific differences, yet all the 
knowledge it can acquire of physical entities is, 
that they are; that they have varied modes of 
action, and that they are clothed with various 
forms. 

In my biographical sketch of our planet, from 
its configuration, I have deduced the conclusion 
that it Tvas once in a liquid state ; that through 
the cooling influence of oxygen, nitrogen and 
hydrogen, its crust was formed; that after it 
reached its maximum of heat, the same diminished, 
and will continue to diminish till it becomes a 
solid mass; that the heat of the earth's nucleus 



ig2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

warms its crust for man's benefit, and that this 
heat is not hell's fire. Then, if hell be not in the 
interior of our globe, where is it ? I do not know. 
I believe it exists, because the enormity of sin and 
the justice of God demand its existence. The 
location of hell will remain a problem which the 
human mind will not be able to solve until a reve- 
lation sheds light upon it. 

Now, ^thout attaching much importance to 
an opinion, or without attempting to point out 
the location of this state, I shall note that it could 
be in the dark background of space. As before 
remarked, beyond our starry firmament, trillions 
of miles, a black void appears without a vestige 
to indicate the being of a material body. Not a 
ray of light from any body in space illumines this 
dark void. Hell might be located in this dark, 
cheerless, empty void. If this be so, then we can 
easily understand the language of holy David, 
who said : '* Let not the deep swallow me up, and 
let not the pit shut her mouth upon me,''* and the 
language of the Apocalypse, which describes hell 
as a bottomless pit.f Without taking into 
account this dark void, immeasurable space is 
truly a bottomless pit, for trillions of miles away 
in its irresolvable background, our highest and 
best telescopes can discern nothing but empty 
space intensified by darkness. Of course I am 
fully aware that this sort of theorizing is not con- 
vincing, for the reason that it carries with it no 

* Ps. Ixviii, 1 6. 
t Apoc. xxi, 12, 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. ig3 

certainty; but as the question is an open one, I 
am at liberty to express my views upon it, for 
which no one is responsible but myself. Although 
I thus speak, yet St. Paul seems to favor my 
theory, who says: ''For our wrestling is not 
against flesh and blood ; but against principalities 
and powers; against the rulers of the world of 
this darkness in high places. ''t He does not say 
in low places, in the earth, but in ^^high,'' in the 
air, in the regions of space, and, especially, on the 
surface of our planet. 

We have already seen that the malice of mortal 
sin is infinite in its nature, because it is an insult 
offered to a just, holy, true, omnipotent, merciful 
and loving God, whose perfections are the law of 
His nature, and therefore, that its punishment is 
infinite in duration, but not in intensity of pain. 
If this truth be viewed by the light of faith, it will 
be accepted, because it ^will be seen that sin and its 
malice result from the non-conformity of the 
created will to the Uncreated, or from the wilful, 
conscious variance and opposition of the creature 
to the Creator, of the finite to the Infinite. Is 
there proof of the eternal being of hell's torments? 
There is. The Scripture says: ''Whose fan is in 
his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor 
and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaflF 
he will bum w^ith unquenchable fire.''* ''Depart 
from me ye cursed, into everlasting ^ro. which was 
prepared for the devil and his angels."** " Where 

t Eph^ vi, 12. 
* Matt, iii, 12. 
** Ibid, XXV, 41. 



ig4. The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

the worm dieth not^ and the fire is not extin- 
guished For every one shall be salted with 

fire/^tt 

The existence of hell is made known to us by 
divine revelation, but its location is enveloped in 
darkness. We may philosophize on its location, 
but to no purpose. As all things are within the 
power of God, except His own annihilation, He 
can make a place or create a state penal in its 
nature, in which mortal sin will be eternally pun- 
ished. As God rewards the just, so will he punish 
the wicked, and hence, as there is a heaven for the 
just, there is a hell for the wicked. It will not do 
to charge God with cruelty, because of the 
existence of hell and its eternal torments. Those 
who so charge him forget that justice is one of his 
attributes, which renders to each one of us, 
according to our merits. It is the unrepenting 
sinner who separates himself from God, that 
makes hell for himself. If vanity and strife, 
avarice and sensuality, theft and murder, drunken- 
ness and blasphemy find their way to heaven, then, 
there is no ever-radiant shore beyond the dark 
stream of time; no realm of glory and eternal 
sunhsine; no Kingdom whose roads and streets 
are paved with gold and whose ceiling is set with 
diamonds; no land of peace, of happiness, of 
plenty, whose citizens enjoy unutterable joy and 
glory. But there is, and the sinful shall not enter 
therein. No, never, because sin and sanctity are 

tt Mark ix, 45-48. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. igj 

extremes that can never form a unit. Their repel- 
lant nature v^ill keep them apart, in diflferent 
abodes throughout eternity. 

The vapid theories, refuted in this work *^ that 
the pain of death, the action of the atmosphere 
on a soul during its journey from this world to the 
judgment seat of God and the efficacy of faith 
alone will efface sin,'^ will not do, becaue false. 
Unless one wishes to stultify religion and reason, 
he must admit that there is a hell, and that, if he 
wish to avoid its pain, he must know, love and 
serve God above all things, and love his neighbor 
as he does himself. If he do, he need not fear hell, 
because it has no terrors for him. He will not be 
sentenced to that dreary abode ; no, he will enjoy 
the society of God and His elect forever in that 
Kingdom that know^s no sorrow, no pain. 

The various writers on hell, and on the nature 
of its fire, whose works I consulted, were almost 
unanimous that the most intense pain is the 
'* worm that dieth not/' Than this, there is no 
need of physical fire to torture the reprobate. 
The remorse of conscience which burns and tor- 
ments the damned is beyond conception. In los- 
ing God, an Infinite Good was lost, and this 
thought acting on the damned souls renders hell 
hideous and intolerable. Some of those writers 
say that there is connected with the pain of loss a 
fire of some kind which burns and tortures. 
Others, that the fire of hell is material. But, as 
this assertion is not sustained by a shadow of 
proof, it is worthless. 



ig6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Whether hell be a place or a state, or whether 
its fire be material or not, it is certain that there 
are legions of evil spirits who use all their force to 
lead lis from the love and service of God. Those 
spirits we do not see because they do not come 
into the field of sense ; we only experience their 
suggestions which cannot hurt us, unless we will 
it. If we love God w^e need not fear those demons. 
Temptations do not suppose sin, unless consent is 
given to them. When tempted, do we cherish the 
temptation? If we do, we commit sin. When 
tempted, do v^e despise the temptation, turn away 
from it and pray for assistance to overcome it? 
If w^e do, -vve commit no sin, but merit additional 
grace. But it will be asked, why does God permit 
the spirits of darkness to tempt us ? To show us 
our ^weakness and consequent dependence on Him 
for supernatural help. Temptations are a fiery 
furnace w^e must pass through in this life. They 
are inevitable. The value of their resistance we 
shall see in the invisible w^orld. When we resist 
temptations ^sve give glory to God ^who is always 
present and filing to assist us. Temptations, 
then, should not dishearten us; on the contrary, 
we should be elated at their presence, because they 
afford us a means of meriting additional grace. 

For the benefit of my non-Catholic readers I 
will briefly define what I mean by the term 
** grace.'' Grace is an uncreated and a created gift 
of God to His children. The Eternal Word whom 
the Father sent to redeem the world, or man from 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, igy 

the curse of original sin, was uncreated grace. 
*^For God so loved the world, as to give his only 
begotten Son; that w^hosoever believeth in him 
may not perish, but may have life everlasting ."^ 
Created graces are natural and supernatural gifts, 
which God, in His goodness bestows upon us. 
Natural gifts, although called graces, are not one 
and the same with supernatural grace, which 
results from the merits of Christ. Grace so result- 
ing is actual and habitual. Actual is that assist- 
ance which God, through the merits of Christ 
bestows upon us in our fallen state, through which 
we can ascend to a supernatural state, by living 
up to the requirements of revealed religion. 
Habitual grace is that by which we are justified 
through faith enlivened by charity. Since nature 
can not rise higher than herself, it follows that v/e 
can not obtain our ultimate end, unless through 
the merits of Christ and the practical acceptance 
of His doctrine. ^^I am the way, and the truth 
and the life. No man cometh to the Father but 
by me.^'t ^'Nor is there salvation in any other. 
For there is no other name under heaven given to 
men, w^hereby we must be saved. ''f 

Do the human family accept grace and utilize 
it? No. Even the collective body of Christians 
do not accept it. Many of them spurn the precious 
gift, and, like Adam, eat the fruit of the forbidden 
tree, and by the act, induce their spiritual death. 

* John iii, i6. 
X John xiv, 6. 
t Acts iv, 12. 



ig8 The Visible aiid Invisible Worlds, 

As the term, repentance, has neither charm nor 
attraction for this class, they ignore it, and hence, 
continue in sin, as if there \vere no infinitely just 
Being to call them to an account. God has given 
this class up to their base passions, which, like the 
raging sea cannot rest from casting up dirt and 
mire. 

As I have said before, the existence of hell has 
been divinely revealed, but its location and the 
nature of its fire are enveloped in mysterious dark- 
ness. In confirmation of this statement, St. 
Augustin says: Qui ignis cujusmodij et in qua 
mundi vel rerum parte faturas sit, hominum scire 
arbitror neminem, nisi forte Spiritus divinus osten- 
dit, ^' No one knows, unless it is divinely revealed, 
anything of the location of hell, or of the nature 
of its fire.'^§§ 

St. Chrysostom says: ^^Let us not enquire 
w^here hell is, but escape it.'^^ An excellent advice. 
TertuUion says : '^ The fire that is made for man's 
use, is different from that which the justice of God 
employs in the next world for the punishment of 
sin.^'t St. Vincent Ferrer says: **Our earthly 
fire is cold compared to the fire of hell.'' Lactan- 
tius says : ^^ Eternal fire is different in its nature 
from our fire."$ The prophet Isaiassays : ^^ Who 
of you can dwell with devouring fire? "11 Isaias, 
in another place, says: **The fire of hell is the 
spirit of heat."§ The prophet Jeremiah says : ^* A 

|§ De Civ., Dei, lib. 20, Caput, 16. % Div., instit., I/. 7, c. 21, 

* Horn. 31, in :^pist., ad Romanos, n. 5. || Isa. xxxiii, 14. 

t Apol. cap. 48. g Ibid, iv, 4. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. igg 

fire is kindled in my rage. ''If Ecclesiastes says : 
*^ The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly, is fire 
and worms. ''^* The most intense pain of hell is 
the pain of loss. St. John Chrysostom says : ''A 
thousand hells are not equal to this pain ; "ft and 
St. Augustin says: *^ If the damned enjoyed the 
vision of God ; they would feel no pain, and hell 
would become a paradise. ''t J 

The dammed soul, while being judged, obtains 
a glimpse of God's marvelous, enchanting beauty, 
which so dazzles it that it would annihilate itself 
if it could, through the force of remorse because 
of the loss of a Good so great, so excellent and 
so charming. The damned are more keenly tor- 
mented by this pain than by any other peculiar to 
hell. This is the pain of pains. 

Although God is only seen in this life under the 
veil of faith, yet this vision to a pious soul is so 
glorious that it, sometimes, becomes semi-ecstatic 
through the beauty of the mental vision. If this 
be true, and it is, of a soul that lovingly views 
God under the veil of faith, what must be its joy, 
its delight and its happiness, when it sees Him 
face to face ? What must be the sorrow, the regret, 
the remorse of a condemned soul that will never 
again enjoy this glorious vision. Ah ! its sorrow 
will be as bitter, as piercing, as gnawing, as burn- 
ing as hell itself, and as continuous as eternity^ 

The human mind, in attempting to form an idea 
of space, becomes bewildered, because, although 

^ Jer. XV, 14. ft Ad. pop., Ant., horn., 48. 

** Ecc. vii, 19. \\ I^e Tripl., Hab., c.4. 



200 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

limited, it can not set limits to it. We knoT?sr that 
since space is but the extension of bodies, it must 
have limits; but the *^ wounds'' of Adam have so 
v^eakened our intellects that we can not find those 
limits, and hence, we become despondent. But, 
though gloomy be our despondency, yet through 
the light of faith, we acquire the certainty that 
bodies which revolve in space are doomed to a 
change of form, if not to non-being. Will the form 
of hell be ever changed ? v/411 it ever cease to exist? 
No. This penal state will be of eternal duration. 
The infinite malice of mortal sin imparts to it con- 
tinuous existence. '^ And the false prophet shall 
be tormented day and night for ever and ever.''^'' 

* ApCC. XXj 10. 



CHAPTER IX. 

God — His attributes — Heayen — Its glory — 
The angels— Their office— The saints — 
Their office. 

As the heading of this chapter indicates, I am 
surrounded by mysteries \\^hich intersect each 
other, and point to the inability of finite reason 
to conYey a remote idea of their super-eminent 
glory and beauty. Although diYine faith comes to 
the assistance of reason, and carries it beyond the 
world of sense into God's own Kingdom, yet my 
ideas and judgments, expressiYC of God, His trans- 
cendental glory, the glory of His Kingdom and its 
citizens, fall infinitely short of the reality they 
intend to express. Then, to remotely describe the 
El Olanij the Eternal God, I must, with child-like 
simplicity, fall back on diYine faith for the fila- 
ments of my narratiYC. But before I commence 
to w^eaYC my descriptiYC web, I w^ill state that 
those who refuse to know, Ioyc and serve God, act 
unwisely, because, if He be not known, loYcd and 
served bv His creatures, whom He made to His 
image, eternal separation from Him, and its con- 
sequent pain, wall be their state in the invisible 
w^orld. In this benighted, painful state, their 
forced parallelisms between themselves and brute 
matter, will be of no avail. So says divine revela- 



202 The Visible a?td /divisible Worlds. 

tion which cannot err. I know that infideUty will 
not accept this conclusion, and that it will scoff 
at it, but this will not affect its inherent truth. I 
further know that some will attempt to invalidate 
it, on the ground of invincible ignorance. To 
those I reply that I am not going to hair-splitting 
on a question that belongs to theology, and not 
to a ^vork like this. However, as I have treated 
some theological questions thus far, I shall remark 
on this, that any one who commits a formal sin 
^^unto death,'' and does not do penance for the 
same, will beeternallj- lost. With material sin the 
case is different. If a person be guilty of material 
sin, w^ho had it in his power to know that the act 
v^as wrong, he is guilty of a formal sin. In every 
case where we know, or ought to know the 
malignity of the act, we are held accountable. Sin 
resulting from removable or vincible ignorance is 
always formal. But if the ignorance be invincible 
— thcat is, if it be impossible to remove it, the sin 
is material, and, therefore, non-punishable in the 
invisible world. So say theologians. Neverthe- 
less, it is an unsteady plank to take passage on 
from the visible to the invisible w^orld. For my 
own part I would prefer a safer ship. But here a 
difficulty presents itself to my mind, ^^hich I v.nll 
allow the theologians to solve. If I admit, as I 
do, that invincible ignorance takes away the guilt 
of the act, is not the person who is invincibly 
ignorant, bound to obey the natural law w^hich is 
outlined on his conscience? If he knowingly vio- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 203 

late this law, where is the value of his invincible 
ignorance ? 

But who is Jehovah? Who is 'El Olaml the 
Lord, the Eternal God? He is the Creator, the 
Upholder of the visible and invisible ^worlds, and 
of all the entities that inhabit them. God is a 
self-dependent Being, who existed eternally by and 
through Himself. God is supreme Good ; He is, 
therefore, the plenitude of perfection and holiness 
without the least admixture of privation. God 
has goodness, mercy, love, wisdom, truth and 
justice inherent in Him in infinite in tenseness. God 
is the source of all holiness, whether of angels or 
of human beings ; of all science, whether of angels 
or of men. God, who is simple Being, is in all 
things, but not of them ; and all things are in 
Him, but not of Him, no part of Him, because 
He is a simple Act, a pure Spirit, and therefore, 
indivisible. 

The creation of chaos out of nothing, the elimi- 
nation of light out of the dark mass, the renova- 
tions of the kosmos, its consolidation, its forma- 
tion into bodies, luminous and non-luminous, 
their suspensation in space and the laws that gov- 
ern them, are the works of God. Every angel of 
blinding light in heaven ; every soul that glorifies 
God in His kingdom and in purgatory ; every 
human being on earth ; every creature in the animal 
kingdom, from the tiny animalculum to the fierce 
lion ; every plant, shrub and tree, from the creep- 
ing vine to the stately oak, belong to God, by 



204- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

reason of creation, formation and conservation. 
The wealth that is shut up in the bosom of the 
earth ; the glare and glory of the human intellect ; 
the light that travels through space through the 
medium of ether, are the v^orks of God, and belong 
to Him. In a word, every thing good in the 
physical, moral and religious worlds must be 
ascribed to God. Can evil be ascribed to Him ? 
No. Evil can not be imputed to God, as its author, 
because it has no essence, and because it has 
no essence, it is not an entity; but as every 
being God created or formed, has essence, 
and as evil has none, therefore, God did not create 
it. Evil, as before stated, is the deflection of the 
human will from the Divine Will. Evil is the 
deprivation of good. 

Then, there is only one, supreme, omnipotent, 
eternal, simple, omnipresent, necessary and 
absolutely perfect Being and this is God. Yes. 
But in this IBl 01am, in this Eternal God, there are 
three Divine Persons, the Person of the Father, 
the Person of the Son and the Person of the Holy 
Ghost, who constitute the Blessed Trinity. The 
word, person, does not at all convey the idea of 
independent personality, because the three Persons 
of the Blessed Trinity are one and the same God, 
co-equal, co-eternal, co-omnipotent and co-sub- 
stantial. Neither does it convey the idea of a 
physical formation in God. 

To philosophize on the dogma of the Blessed 
Trinity would be useless, because finite reason can 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 20J 

not work outside a bounded circle or a limited 
plane, and hence, of itself, can not apprehend the 
Blessed Trinity. No intellectual being can compre- 
hend the Adorable Trinity. If the sublime mys- 
tery of the Triune Diety were not revealed, it 
would not gain the assent of the Christian mind. 
But it Y^^as, and hence, in the attitude of rever- 
ential awe, we worship and adore, 012/7, the one, 
holy and undivided Trinity. The charge of mari- 
olatry^ or the worship of the Blessed Virgin, we 
repudiate. It is a slander, which has no basis to 
rest on, outside insensate, fanatical minds. Then, 
in one God, there are three Divine Persons who 
claim our love and adoration. Yes. Why? Because 
the Triune Deity has an inherent right to our love 
and adoration which results from our creation, 
redemption and sanctification. By virtue of crea- 
tion, we are bound to love and serve God, because 
we are His children, being made to His likeness. 
Nay more, we are bound to love and serve Him, 
because He feeds us with material and spiritual 
food, and because He watches over us with more 
than father^s care. We are not only children of 
God, but brothers of the Incarnate Word, who 
shed His life-blood on Mount Calvary for our 
redemption, and by the loving act, opened to us 
the kingdom of heaven, His own imperial home, 
which was closed against humanity by the sin of 
Adam. Then, a home of unspeakable delight and 
marvelous beauty will be our's, when the sands of 
our lives are run out. Yes, unless we disenherit 



2o6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

ourselves. How ? By deflecting our will from that 
of God, by willing what He does not want us to 
Avill. Whenever the human will is non-conform- 
able to the Divine Will, as before stated, sin 
results, and if this be mortal, our souls will be 
denied admission into heaven. Can this evil be 
remedied ? Yes. We must, if guilty of sin unto 
death, have recourse to the medium instituted by 
our Lord for its remission. What medium is this? 
Penance, which induces the whisperings of angels 
and the dew-drops of grace into our souls. Then 
heaven, the home of the elect, the abode of those 
who lived conformable to the laws of God ; of 
those who fell, but arose, did penance arid died in 
the friendship of God, is a vast, boundless ocean of 
delights. It is. The beauty and glory of heaven ; 
the joy and melody ; the smiles and happiness of 
its citizens, who shine brighter than the noon-day 
sun, are beyond the descriptive powers of the 
human mind. In the enjoyment of the all-holy, 
all-lovely and all-beautiful Beatific Vision, the 
angels and saints experience all the pleasure, all 
the delight, all the felicity and all the consolation 
their created nature can bear. Torrents of bliss, 
of intense love, of ecstatic beatitude and of ravish- 
ing beauty inundate them. They are submerged 
in the glory and beauty of the Godhead ! 

To enable the reader to form a still further 
notion of the joys of heaven, I will state that all 
the supernatural sweetness experienced by the 
saints through the practice of religion since the 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 207 

days of the Redeemer to the present, dwindle into 
insignificance compared to the joys of heaven. 
The practical Christian, who piously, seriously 
and tranquilizingly meditates on the joys of 
heaven, is lost in the depth and grandeur, in the 
glory and sublimity of the subject, because he has 
no words at command to convey an idea of the 
impression it makes upon his mind. The joys of 
heaven are real, without any alloy ; they are solid 
and lasting, and hence, are dissimilar to the joys 
of this world, which are as momentary, as fleet- 
ing and as vapid as a dream. What is called joy 
in this world, is only a shadow, which appears for 
a moment, and then disappears. The joys of 
heaven satiate, and in no v^ay create a sense or 
feeling of want, while those of earth induce 
hunger. The man who feeds his soul with worldly 
joy is never satisfied. In proportion as he sat- 
urates it with worldly joys and pleasures, his 
appetite deepens and widens for more, which, if it 
do not obtain, it vibrates from the force of its 
restlessness. Ah ! how verified this is in the world 
of man. Ah! what a pity that man, noble man, 
made to the image of God, should be a slave to 
blind, unruly passion. 

The beauty and glory of the sidereal heavens, 
of the intellectual and moral worlds, are as inferior 
to the splendor of God's Kingdom, as is the 
twilight dawn to the glare of the noonday sun. 
The rapturous beauty of the Triune Deity which 
gleams through the widely extended heavens, is 



2o8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

too blinding, too dazzling for mortals to form an 
idea of, and hence, is inexplicable through a 
rational medium. In the contemplation of God's 
perfections, of the glory of His Kingdom and the 
raiment of His saints and angels, reason must 
be passive virhile faith is active. Faith alone 
apprehends the sublimity and glory of heaven and 
its God, who is our kind, loving and tender Father. 
But, although He is such, yet His justice and 
holiness demand that we live up to His holy 
religion which He established for our guidance in 
this benighted, sinful world. 

To attempt to convey an idea of heaven^s 
glory, tranquility and happiness, I should use all 
the heightening adjectives in the English language 
and all the nouns expressive of ecstatic joy, and 
then fail. Why ? Because we have no conception 
of glory, joy or happiness higher than earthly, 
which are infinitely below those of heaven. It is 
this that renders the invisible Kingdoms difficult 
to be described as regards their happiness and 
pain, their brilliancy and darkness. Nevertheless, 
that a confused notion of their joys and sufferings, 
be formed, I shall have recourse to the w^orld 
of sense, or to the seasons of the year for the 
filaments of my descriptive argument. 

Summer, lovely Summer, the second season of the 
year, which clothes the vegetable kingdom in emer- 
ald garments, and breathes on it its soft, vivifying 
breath, as God did into the face of primal man, 
gives us a notion of heaven's glory, joy and beauty. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 20Q 

From the splendor of the sun that sheds a golden 
hue on the sky, as he sinks to rest in the west ; 
from the dew drops, that are miniature globes, 
w^hich reflect the various shades of color, through 
their refraction of light ; from the tiny insects that 
sport in the sunbeams; from the warbling birds 
that enliven the groves; from the music of the 
zephyrs that play on the leaflets ; from the glee of 
the sunbeams that dance on the water ; from the 
joyous murmurs of the rills that hurry to the 
ocean, there to be swallowed up, as is a soul in 
eternity, and from the carrol of children that frisk 
on the green sward, unconscious of care and free 
from sin, we can form a notion of heaven^s joys. 
The blue and crystalline dome of heaven, spangled 
with brilliants, which faintly reflect the glory of 
their Creator, impart to our minds a notion of 
heaven's glory and beauty. The glare of the stars 
that are set in the sky, the soft light they difiuse 
from on high, cause the Christian heart to pulsate 
with delight, because typical of the marvelous, 
holy light that envelops the angels who minister 
to God, watch over us, present our petitions to 
Him, and when granted, with more than light- 
ning speed, convey to us those graces which enable 
us to subdue the temptations of the world, the 
flesh and the devil. In heaven nothing exists that 
can remotely give pain or displeasure to its 
citizens, but everything that imparts delight. In 
this kingdom of eternal happiness, *^God will 
wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and death 



2IO The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

shall be no more, for the former things (those of 
earth) are passed away. And he that sat on the 
throne said : behold I make all things new.''* In 
heaven there will be no envy, no strife, no perse- 
cution, no intrigue, no false testimony, no act of 
injustice. In that country, in that Kingdom of 
love, of peace, of delight, of joy, of sanctity, of 
glory and of happiness, there will be no fear, no 
anxiety, because its citizens are confirmed in glory, 
in God's love, and hence, cannot lose Him by sin. 
In heaven, the chief joy, the principal delight, the 
unalloyed happiness of the elect, consists in loving 
God, in seeing Him face to face, and it is the 
absence of this love, of this vision that renders 
hell intolerable; for the privation of the Beatific 
Vision is the pain of pains, and the torture of 
tortures. 

Our thoughts, which from the glory of Summer 
floated out from us into the regions of space, in 
which are seen the works of God ad extra^ become 
depressed, so soon as we commence to muse upon 
Autumn, w^hich is a very remote figure of purga- 
tory. This season which is a nexuSy or a connecting 
term between Summer and Winter, has changed 
its smiles into tears, because it is about to be 
deprived of the gorgeous raiment bestowed on it 
by Summer, as is a miser of his wealth by death. 
Its absence of floral beauty, of vegetable life, of 
genial sunshine and balmy days, casts a depressive 
gloom over our intellects, which we patiently bear 

* Apoc. xxi, 4. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 211 

through the whisperings of hope that tell us that 
its gloom, its piercing wind and biting cold, will 
be of short duration. How sweet, how consoling 
is hope when it is based upon God. When it has 
such a basis, it is an anchor to the soul, which 
keeps it steady on the angry ocean of time, while 
it converts purgatory into a paradise, notwith- 
standing the intensity of its pain. The certainty, 
from the inspirations of living hope, that the long, 
dark, dreary, painful night of purgatory will end, 
and be succeeded by a glorious dawn that will 
never end in pain or darkness, renders the souls in 
purgatory happy beyond conception, compared 
to the reprobate, whose dreadful state cannot be 
alleviated by the whisperings of a living hope. 
Ah! no. For them there is no hope. Their hope 
is dead ! It is as dead as an Autumn leaf detached 
from its life-giving source, and will be so for all 
eternity. 

A few reflections on Winter may help us to form 
a vague idea of the gloom and pain of hell. Of all 
the seasons of the year. Winter is the most dreaded 
by all the beings of the animal kingdom. Even the 
vegetable, as if endued by instinct, seems to fear 
its deadly advent, for the sap of trees, their life, as 
is grace that of the soul, seeks protection in their 
roots, as does the soul in God in time of tempta- 
tion. 

Through the recession of our planet from the 
summer solstice, the heating powers of the sun's 
rays become gradually enfeebled and the circle of 



212 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

illumination grows less, while the days, as a result, 
become short and the nights long. With the 
intense cold of the long wintery nights we are 
familiar. We remember the pitiless, severe storms 
of hail and snow which almost froze our blood 
and paralized our sensibilities. But we endured 
the gloom of the short days, the cold of the long 
nights, the pain and torture of Winter, through 
the hope of the speedy return of Spring, which 
would impart heat to the earth that would 
awaken it from its slumber and quicken it into 
vegetable productiveness. Have the reprobate 
any such hope ? No. Let trillions of years be mul- 
tiplied by billions, and let the sum be redoubled, at 
the end hell will be as youthful as when called into 
existence. This dark expanse, this dreary abyss, 
this night of pain, this extreme of suffering will 
continue forever. When those luminous bodies 
that, now, light up and adorn the heavens shall 
be quenched by the Almighty Being who formed 
them out of cosmical vapor, when the death-knell 
of time shall be tolled, hell will be youthful, will 
be hideously dark and intense^ painful; and 
shrieks and moans, and howls and scouls, and 
clamor and weeping, and yells and hissings, and 
groans and curses will eternally ring in hell, will 
be its only music. And yet, the great majority of 
the human family are speeding towards this horrid 
state ! Happy in their sins, they heed not the lan- 
guage of inspiration which reads: *' Revenge is 
mine, I will repay,"^ I have drawn my sword out 

* Rom. xii, 19. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 21J 

of its sheath, not to be turned back."^* I hide my 

face from thee , all evils and afflictions shall 

find them.**"^ The inmates of hell are the people 
with whom the Lord is angry forever.f The sin- 
ner shall see and shall be enraged ; he shall gnash 
his teeth and pine away. That which he choose 
shall be given him. ''ft 

** Ezek. xxi, 5. f Mai. i, 4. 

*** Deuter.xxxi, 17, ft Kccles. xv, 18. 



CHAPTER X. 

The unity of the visible with the two invis- 
ible WORLDS— The church militant— Her 

HAPPINESS in her CHILDREN AND IN THE POS- 
SESSION OF THE Blessed Sacrament. The 

MANIFESTATION OF OUR LoRD'S HUMANITY IN 

THE Blessed Sacrament — The dead world. 
Mediation — Knowledge imparted to the 

HUMAN mind through EXTERNAL MEDIUMS — Do 
HUMAN BEINGS GENERATE THE COMPONENTS OF 
THEIR OFFSPRINGS ? ThE HUMAN SOUL — ThE 
ANIMAL SOUL — NEITHER NATURALISM NOR THE 
WORLD CAN SATISFY THE CRAVINGS OF THE 
HUMAN HEART. 

Thus far I have glanced at the creation of mat- 
ter, at its formation into luminous and non-lumin- 
ous bodies, and their suspension in space. I have 
also taken a synoptical view of the creation of 
angels, of primal man and of their fall, which 
called hell and purgatory into existence; and now 
I shall devote a brief space to the unity that exists 
between the visible and the two invisible King- 
doms. Those Kingdoms, although intrinsically 
different, are as united as are the three sides of a 
polygon. From the nature of things, they sup- 
pose each other, assist each other, and when time 

shall be no more they will form a unit. As those 

214 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 215 

Kingdoms now exist, they are gradations in the 
scale of supernatural happiness. Like the degrees 
of comparison, the visible militant is good, the 
suffering is better and the triumphant is best. The 
Church triumphant is the utmost extreme of 
beauty, glory and happiness. The Church suffer- 
ing, although remote from the enjoyment of the 
Beatific Vision, enjoys a happiness, a peace and a 
holy tranquility which the human mind cannot 
conceive. This results from the living hope of a 
release and a consequent admission into God^s 
Kingdom. The Church militant is happy in suf- 
fering affronts for the sake of Him who founded 
her and baptized her in His Blood. She is happy 
in the vast number of her children who, through 
the grace of the Holy Spirit, live in a moral union 
with God. She is happy in her priesthood, who 
are ^^the light of the ^world, the salt of the earth.'* 
Is this true ? It is ; for on the surface of our 
planet, there is no other body of human beings 
equal to them in piety, learning and morality. In 
the horizon of humanity they are fixed stars, set 
by the Almighty to diffuse His light upon it. 
From time to time one of those stars does not 
revolve around its Center. It seems to be non- 
influenced by divine attraction, but as this results 
from the wounds of Adam, and from a non-accept- 
ance of grace, the Church must not be charged 
with the defection. In the apostolic school of the 
Redeemer, there was a Judas, and among the 
seven deacons there was a Nicholas. It is meet 



2i6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

that scandals cometh, but woe to him that glveth 
scandal. Lastly, the Church militant is happy in 
in her possession of God in the Blessed Sacrament. 
The Eternal Word, made £esh, who created, 
formed and poised in space those celestial bodies 
which declare His praise, abides in the Blessed 
Sacrament as really and as truly as He does in 
heaven. As in the crib of Bethlehem He concealed 
the radiant splendor of His divinity, through 
fleshly raiment, so does He in the Blessed Sacra- 
ment, through the Sacramental veils. Then, 
heaven's God exists on the altars of the Church 
militant, under the poor raiment of bread and 
wine. He does, and no philosophy, and no science 
with which the mind of man is familiar, can dis- 
prove this glorious dogma of the Church militant. 
The inherent truth of this dogma is based on and 
results from the action of the Redeemer, \srho, at 
His last Supper, changed the substance of bread 
and wine into the substance of His Body and 
Blood,"^ ^th a command to His apostles that 
they do the same until the end of time.f This is 
the only instance in which material forms exist 
without their subjects to rest upon. God effects 
this stupendous miracle through His divine Power, 
which evoked matter from non-being to being. 
As the omnipotent act of the Incarnate Word, 
which truly and wholly changed the substance of 
bread and wine into the substance of His Body 
and Blood, involved no contradiction, it implied 

* Matt, xxvi, 26. 
t lyuke xxii, 19. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 21^ 

no impossibility. It was as easy for the Eternal 
Word, robed in flesh, to say that the substance of 
the bread and wine which He held in His hands, 
was changed into the substance of His sacred 
Body and Blood, as to say: Let matter be; let 
light be; let bodies be formed and suspended in 
space. 

In the Blessed Sacrament the Body of the 
Redeemer is latent, impalpable and insensible. 
Owing to these it does not come into the field of 
sense. Although this is ordinarily the case, yet it 
admits of an exception, as the following, based on 
the logic of sense and reason, testifies: A priest, 
whom I know very well, prior to saying Mass for 
his congregation on the last Sundaj^r in March, 
1889, put a well-made, clean bread on the patena, 
and commenced to say Mass. Everything went 
on as usual till the moment of consecration 
arrived. In the church there was the stillness of 
the night, the choir and organ being silent, while 
the congregation sent their sighs and petitions to 
the God of mercy. The priest, who occupied a 
middle position between God and His people, 
fringed with awe and fear, pronounced mysterious 
words of consecration, the same the Lord pro- 
nounced at His Last Supper. After the consecra- 
tion of the bread, and after the sacred host was 
being elevated and placed on the corporal, a some- 
thing unusual connected with the Holy Sacrifice 
attracted his attention. What was it? It was a 
tumuluSy or hillock which appeared like, and was 



2iS The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

about the size of the first joint of ones little finger. 
The hillock rested on its base, was rooted in the 
sacred host and had a flesh-colored skin sufficiently 
transparent to afford a clear view of its interior 
substance which seemed red. The priest, after a 
brief interval of time employed in an examination 
of the phenomenon, detached the hillock from the 
host, and in doing so, it imprinted on the host a 
deep blood-stain, which remained visible till it 
was consumed. So soon as the tumulus was 
detached from the host, and was placed on the 
corporal, it turned a dark-brown color. At the 
ablution, the priest did not consume this detached 
matter ; he required more time for an examination 
of it, and hence, put it carefully in its proper place. 
In the afternoon, he went to the church, and, upon 
examining the corporal, he found that the hillock, 
or detached mass divided itself into several par- 
ticles, varying in size from a pin's point to its 
head, while three longitudinal ones, about an inch 
long, and crinckled, lay parallel to each other. The 
inner one v^as blood-red, while the two outer ones 
were a dark brown. The priest collected all the 
particles into an angle of the corporal and left, 
intending to consume them 'within his Mass on the 
following morning. Upon unfolding the corporal 
for this purpose, under the force of a microscope, 
not one particle could be seen. What became of 
them? This question can not be answered. The 
case has been referred to Archbishop Heiss, but 
what could he say. It was one of those wonders 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2ig 

often manifested by the Almighty in the Blessed 
Sacrament. 

The creation of matter, the elimination of light 
out of chaos, the formation of celestial orbs, their 
suspension in the expanse of blue, ethereal space, 
although glorious and marvelous acts, are insig- 
nificant compared to the institution of the Blessed 
Sacrament. Compared to it, the creation of 
angels, their science, deep vision, intellectual glory 
and dazzling beauty were but shadows. Com- 
pared to it, the sinless beauty of Adam before his 
fall, his gifts of nature and grace, the multitu- 
dinous gifts bestowed upon animate and inanimate 
beings, upon rational and irrational entities, are 
cheerless and dark. In a word, creation is as 
inferior to the Blessed Sacrament as is time to 
eternity, as is the finite to the Infinite. The 
Blessed and Adorable Sacrament is the compen- 
dium of all miracles, because it is God Himself 
w^ho lavishly gives Himself to His children through 
an impulse of divine love. The pious, believing 
Christian, then, has access, not only to the Re- 
deemer in the Blessed Sacrament, but also to the 
Father and the Holy Spirit, who are there too, by 
true concomitance. Ah ! yes, but how unthankful 
are the tepid for this inestimable gift. From the 
attractive force of the Blessed Sacrament, all other 
mysteries gravitate towards it as their Center. 
From this it follows that the Blessed Sacrament 
is the spiritual life and soul of the Church militant, 
the augmentation and the perfection of the 



220 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

spiritual life of her children, and a continuation of 
the Sacrafice of Mount Calvary in an unbloody 
manner. 

Of the truly dead, invisible world, enough has 
been said already. The inmates of this dismal, 
dreary , painful prison, can neither entertain a hope 
of release nor a mitigation of their sentence. 
Being spiritually dead, they cannot hold friendly 
communion with the other three kingdoms. 

From the nature of mediation, the three living 
Kingdoms, as before stated, are knit to each other 
with more than mathematical precission. The 
members of the militant Kingdom, because of their 
exposure to sin, through the ^'wounds of Adam,^^ 
and the temptations of the spirits of darkness, 
require supernatural assistance; and this God 
gives to them through the worthy reception of the 
Sacraments, through the performance of other 
good works, and through the prayerful inter- 
cession of the saints. Now, if our spiritual 
wants are present to the mind of God, and they 
are, and if He be always ready to succor us, and 
He is, why then do we ask the intercession of the 
saints? Is not the request superfluous, and does 
it not derogate from the goodness of God towards 
us ? If ^we want an office or a favor of any kind 
from one in power, do we not invoke the interces- 
sion of our friends ? Do we not ask them to speak 
a kind word of us, in order that we may obtain 
the object of our desire? As it is in the world of 
man, in this respect, so is it in the Kingdom of 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 221 

God. God wills that His saints intercede for us, 
and He has willed, too, to grant them their 
request. As we are helped by the prayers of the 
saints, so are the members of the suffering King- 
dom by ours. Our prayers, alms-deeds, mortifica- 
tions, and especially the application of the Un- 
bloody Sacrifice of Mount Calvary, are of immense 
value to the suffering souls in purgatory, who can 
not help themselves, because they cannot merit. 
Who, without divine faith, can see the glorious 
union, the marvelous beauty, the sublime charity 
and the intense love that exists among the mem- 
bers of those three Kingdoms of God? No one, 
because faith is the eye of the soul, and when it 
does not enjoy this spiritual vision, it is blind ! 

The magnificence, the beauty, the glory and 
the splendor of heaven is subject to no change, 
and this thought acting on the intellects of the 
elect renders their joy solid and real. Many of 
the saints look from the peak of the celestial 
mountain into the depths of hell and there see 
souls condemned for less sins than they committed, 
and hence, exult because they did penance, which 
changed the justice of God into love and merc5^ 
But this the Universalist will not admit. He says: 
*^How can the saints exult and be happy in 
heaven, when they see their kindred suffering in 
hell?'' This objection is based on the instincts of 
human nature, and therefore, has no force. The 
saints in heaven rejoice as much in seeing God's 
justice satisfied, as they do any other attribute of 



222 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Him. Human love, human sympathy and affec- 
tion do not accompany a disembodied spirit into 
the empyrean heavens, but spiritual love and 
affection do. If those relatives condemned to hell 
had their lamps trimmed and lighted when the 
bridegroom came, they would have entered with 
him to the marriage feast, but they had not, and 
hence, were denied admission. We must have the 
oil of prayer, of penance and good works always 
burning in our hearts, always illuminating our 
souls, and always reflected from our actions, 
otherwise we ^11 not obtain the fullness of grace, 
and when borne over the mighty deep, through 
the irresistible force of death, the Lord will say to 
us, ^^I know you not,'' a dreadful sentence. 
While on this earth, heaven, our future state of 
rest, of peace, of joy, of glory and of happiness^ 
must be our first and last thought. It must be 
the alpha and omega of all our actions. In the 
various pursuits of life, in sunshine and storm, we 
must seek heaven, find it and not let it go from us 
through the strategems of our spiritual enemies. 
We must not forget that the Kingdom of Heaven 
^'suffers violence, and that none bear it away, 
except those who use violence.'' 

That the initial or incipient knowledge of God's 
existence ; of the creation of angels and of man ; 
of their fall and the consequent formation of hell 
and purgatory, must come to the human mind 
through mediums external to it, is a truth that 
must be accepted. It must be accepted, because 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 223 

we have already seen that the knowledge which is 
natural to the soul will remain in potentia, passive, 
unless external mediums are brought to act upon 
it. The human mind in its primary state is dor- 
mant, and must be aroused from its slumber by 
instruction from abroad. Mens bumana, in prin- 
cipioy est sicut tabula rasa in qua nihil est scrip- 
turn. Does not the force that intrinsically exists 
in the vegetable kingdom require external mediums 
to act upon it, that it may expand and develop 
itself? Is it not the chemical force of light, heat 
and moisture that clothes the trees, shrubs and 
plants with leaves, blossoms and fruit ? Is it not 
the heat of the sun that loads the atmosphere 
with water, absorbed from our seas, lakes and 
rivers, which falls again on the earth, obedient to 
the law of gravity, to fertilize it? Is it not 
through the medium of the prism, that white light 
is refracted and its various colors brought into the 
field of sense? Is it not through the medium of 
the spectroscope that the truly scientific conclusion 
is deduced that all bodies in space evolved from 
matter, in the form of meteoric dust, scarcely 
sensible, thus corroborating the Mosaic statement 
which tells us that it was ^^void and empty/' 
Lastly, is it not through the medium of ether that 
light travels 192,500 miles in a second of time? 
And yet, evolutionists tell us that ^* science sees no 
future, inspiring hope for man, no need of a 
Christian education through external mediums, 
because he evolved from something material, 



224 '^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

which grew and still grows, as did and does the 
grass under the influence of natural force/' But 
what this material something is they know not, 
and, although ignorant of its nature, they deify it. 
They act as blindly as did the French atheists, 
^who enthroned the goddess of liberty on the 
altar of Norte Dame Church, in the city of Paris ; 
as did the Italian communists, who recently 
erected a statue in the city of Rome, to the mem- 
ory of the deceased infidel, Bruno. And here, at 
the expense of a brief digression, I shall insert a 
few remarks on the *' orthodoxy '' of this modern 
hero, who has attracted so much notice in Europe 
and this country. 

It is historically true that Giordano Bruno, an 
ex-monk, was burned alive, not for his belief in 
and preaching of the heliocentric theory, which 
he poorly understood, but for his heretical belief 
and teaching. Bruno not only denied the Real 
Presence, but the existence of a First Cause. In 
giving expansion to the heliocentric theory, he 
taught that ^*the universe possessed an intelligent 
soul, which imparted form to matter, but did not 
produce matter ; that this soul lives in all things ; 
that the matter and soul of the universe constitute 
God; that space is infinite, and that it is filled 
with non-luminous bodies, which are inhabited 
with human beings. '' He further preached that 
*' orthodoxy possessed neither faith nor morals.'' 
For such opinions he was banished out of his 
native land. On his return against the will of the 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 22^ 

State, by its order he was arrested, imprisoned, 
tried and convicted of heresy, and, to the disgrace 
of the age, was burned alive. This inhuman act 
was that of the State, which, at the time, tol- 
erated many others as heterodox as Bruno, v^ho 
was neither a scientist nor a theologian. Cruel as 
the death of Bruno may seem to our sensibilities, 
yet history records another as equally atrocious. 
Skeptical thought, explicitly expressed, forced 
Servetus to dissent from the predestinarianism of 
Calvin, and sectarian animosity forced the said 
Calvin to burn Servetus alive. Why is not a mon- 
ument erected to this martyr of anti-predestinari- 
anism ? Infidelity should not any longer neglect 
to honor his memory. 

Then, the truth of my conclusion, that the 
knowledge of God, of the Christian religion, of 
man's immortality, of his moral nature, of his fall, 
and the necessity of a firm foundation to build his 
spiritual edifice on, must come to the mind through 
external mediums, must be accepted as true. Yes, 
indeed, for the Christian mind intuitively sees its 
inherent truth. The ethereal aspirations of the 
human soul, which neither the philosophy of 
Platonism, nor Stoicism, nor infidelity, could nor 
can satisfy, prove its truth, too. As man cannot 
live naturally or physically without reason and 
sense, so also, he cannot live spiritually without 
faith, which requires an external medium for its 
transmission into his soul. Once there, if it be 
enlivened by charity, he enjoys a quietness the 



226 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

^world knows nothing of; once there, he can 
realize the workings of the w^orld, and thank God 
that he is not one of its votaries ; once there he 
can fit himself for a higher state of existence in the 
invisible Kingdom of God. 

If we ask those who count their dollars by the 
million, if their wealth satisfies the constant crav- 
ings of their souls, they will reply that it does not. 
If ^sve ask the materialist, the agnostic and the 
communist, who deify matter, that evil may rotate 
around a center of its own formation, we receive 
a similar response. And why? Because the 
rational soul, which is a subsisting form, the form 
of the human body, a spiritual, simple essence, by 
the force of its nature, requires spiritual food, 
which neither material wealth, nor speculative 
faith can give it. Through the want of this food 
it dies spiritually and cannot be revivified, unless 
through the grace of the sacraments. To obtain 
this, will-force resulting from a knowledge of their 
divine origin, and efficacy, must be called into 
action. If it be not, then, grace is not obtained 
and the complex being passes from indifferentism 
to infidelity. Once in this slough, it is difficult for 
him to extricate himself out of it. 

I will here, devote a brief space to the exami- 
nation of the term, *' naturalism,'' which is a 
blind, irrational, irreligious system that denies 
supernatural agency in the creation of the uni- 
verse and ignores an intelligent, omnipotent 
Originator whom we call God, by whose Force, 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 22^ 

apart from the material used, the organism of the 
vast universe was accomplished. This system in 
the face of philosophy has the audacity to assert, 
that ^^ the rational soul is a human result produced 
by the efficiency of individuals, in the same way, 
as is the human body.'^ But the filaments of this 
argumentative web are so tenuous, that philos- 
ophy finds no difficulty in causing them to snap in 
every sentence, Tvhich brings chagrin to those who 
advanced and attempted to sustain them. Now, 
how could a cause produce an effect greater than 
itself? Did agnostics, materialists or evolutionists 
ever know of a goose that laid an ^^^^^ which, 
when hatched, produced a donkey? They may 
have heard of geese that laid eggs, which, w^hen 
hatched brought forth ganders, devoid of reason. 
This theory of evolution I admit, because I have 
often endured their cackling. After all their cack- 
ling must not be despised, for, if history be true, 
it saved Rome from invasion, and in all human 
probability, only for such a noise, I would never 
have written this book. 

Physiology teaches that the human ovum is no 
sooner impregnated than it is endued with life, 
and theology teaches that the very instant the 
ovum is impregnated a complex being is formed in 
embryo, which, after a lapse of time, will evolve 
from its rudimentary state to a developed one. 
When developed it is a homo, a complex, human 
being, susceptible of mental development and ideal 
activitv. When the reason of this homo is culti- 



228 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

vated through external mediums, it has the power 
to synthetize and analize, to improve and invent, 
to obey and command. This power being axio- 
matically evident, hov^^ can any one possessed of 
right reason affirm that this entity, capable of 
performing these operations, is a result of a human 
act ? In the actions of this being, are there not 
contrarities which argue that the complex is spirit- 
ual and material? Is there not in this being a 
moral feeling and a perception of right from 
wrong? Is there not in him conscience, which is 
his ethical standard? That which intrinsically 
desires happiness and eternal existence, is spiritual, 
because brute matter could not entertain any such 
desires, and therefore, the human soul is the crea- 
tion of God, and not the work of man. But 
materialists argue that ^^ since animals generate 
the bodies and souls of their progeny, man does 
the same/' In the refutation of the various 
systems of infidelity it has been conclusively 
proved more than once that infidelity has ^worked 
its best to reduce man to the value of the irra- 
tional beast. If it were successful in this, what 
would be its gain ? A desert of gloom in which no 
flowers bloom, a deadly desert, which it calls 
natural good. But, does not infidelity already 
enjoy this good? Yes. But according to its 
instincts, natural good consists in lawlessness and 
in the disgusting rites of formal paganism. 

What infidels call an animal soul, is nothing 
more than a sensitive principle, {anima sensitiva) 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 22g 

or a form attached to and inseperable from purely 
animal creatures. When God made the various 
orders of beings in the animal kingdom, in His 
goodness, He endued each with a principle of vital 
direction, which is mortal, and hence, different 
from the human soul that is immortal, and is 
crowned with the radiant crown of reason. 

But materialists further assert that, ** since 
animals can individualize, they, therefore, have 
reasoning faculties." This conclusion is false. The 
recognizing jDOwer of animals results not from 
reason, but from sense. We know that domestic 
animals very soon recognize those who caress 
them and minister to their wants. As the animal 
soul or principle, since creation's dawn, has been 
no more elevated in the scale of intellectualit}^ 
than it now is, it follows that between it and the 
human soul there is a chasm which infidels cannot 
bridge. From and through the light of reason 
and faith, we acquire the certainty that God 
creates the human soul and endows it with immor- 
tality, because of its divine origin. The Christian 
will accept the conclusion that naturalism can not 
satisfy the cravings of the human heart, because 
it is divorced from the supernatural, and because 
it always inclines towards the earthly or perish- 
able. Naturalism, from the nature of its principles, 
is a grim, murky cloud that heavily curtains the 
horizon of infidelity, and shuts out from it the 
light of right reason and true faith. Those ghastly 
clouds will continue to darken it so long as it 



2J0 The Visible a?td Invisible Worlds. 

denies the existence of God, the divine origin of 
Christianity and the human soul. 

The worid can not satisfy the hunger of the 
soul, any more than naturalism can, for the reason 
that it is opposed to God and to His Kingdom on 
earth. It cannot satisfy the cravings of the soul, 
because it is delusive ; it is delusive because, while 
working the spiritual ruin of its votaries, it smiles 
approvingly upon them. It is further delusive, 
because, while conducting them through meadows 
apparently decorated ^th flowers of gorgeous 
hue, it is digging a pit for them into v^hich they 
will fall, if they continue to worship it. This con- 
clusion I deduce from the Word of God, which 
says: *^For the whole world is seated in dark- 
ness.* Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of 
this world, becometh an enemy of God. ''^^ The 
world is seated in wickedness, because it has no 
conscience through the light of which it could 
distinguish between good and evil ; and owing to 
the absence of this light, it does not know, and 
does not want to know that it works outside the 
circle of revealed religion. Its own aggrandize- 
ment is its religion and its God. 

If we tell the votaries of the world that they 
are composed of soul and body, of reason and 
sense, and hence are accountable to their Creator 
for their actions, we are listened to with impertur- 
bable stolidity. If we say to this class that 
reason alone is not the criterion by which the 

* i. John V. 19. 
** James iv, 4. 



The Visible arid Invisible Worlds. 2ji 

supernatural is judged ; that the principles of the 
Christian religion, of sound morality, of justice, 
of truth, of honesty, must be studied to be known, 
and when known, must be practiced, T;ve are 
greeted with a smile of incredulity. 

Now, ^why does the world attempt to eliminate 
the love and fear of God out of the human heart ? 
Why does it set its seal of approval on that which 
is intrinsically bad ? Because it is atheistic, and 
hence its efforts to lead its votaries into the desert 
of paganism. That it is succeeding in this is pain- 
fully evident. Is this conclusion true? It is. Its 
truth is self-evident from the tendency and action 
of worldings who forfeit a happy hereafter for the 
brief enjoyment of perishable gifts and sinful 
enjoyment. 

As already remarked, the world attempts to 
find in itself supreme good, but cannot, because it 
cannot rise higher than itself without super- 
natural assistance. As it has rejected this, by a 
law of its nature, its action is within a circle of its 
own formation. As it is dead to the law of grace, 
and blind to that of right reason, it is no wonder 
that it is the enemy of God and a stigma on the 
beauty of creation. 

But here some one may ask, ^^What is the 
world ? Whence its source ? Did God call it into 
existence ?^^ The w^orld is the dereliction of man's 
duty to his Creator, and to his fellow man. It is 
the intellectual activity of the finite independent 
of, and opposed to the Infinite. God did not call 



2^2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

the ^world of man into existence, but sin did. The 
prince of darkness, who was dazzled at the glare 
and effulgence of his own beauty, or the beauty of 
his Creator, ^which he reflected, called the world 
into existence. When he said : '^I will not serve ; 
I will not obejj^^ he fulminated against himself the 
lightning of the Almighty, which cast him from 
the summit of heaven into the lowest depths of 
hell, and called the v^orld into existence. This was 
its insipient stage. Its next resulted from the sin 
of Adam, under which humanity labors, and 
which, if not restrained by grace will blind con- 
science. When conscience becomes blind, the 
human heart becomes indurated, careless and 
passive, and as a consequence, the service and love 
of God are ignored, while those of the v^orld are 
performed with mathematical precision. 

But enough of the world. Let us now glance 
at the supernatural life, glory and brilliancy 
of that Orb, fixed in the horizon of humanity by 
the Incarnate Word, to illumine it by its soft, 
mellow light, that man might see and know his* 
duty to his God, himself and his neighbor. As 
God abides in and directs the motion of this Orb, 
from the nature of things, its light cannot mislead, 
because its motion is rectilineal from its infinitely 
holy source to all those who open the windows of 
their intellects to the admission of its light. As a 
light of God to His children, this Orb reflects its 
light upon humanity, but mankind collectively is 
not illuminated by its light, owing to shadows 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2^3 

that intervene and prevent its direct rays from 
shining upon them. Those shadows, which encircle 
their intellects in its folds, are composed of non- 
spiritual vision and prejudice, Tvhich cannot be 
removed, unless through the efficacy of grace. 
This divinely founded and formed Orb is the oracle 
of God, is His authoritative teacher, which proves 
its infallibility, its mission, its sanctity, its apos- 
tolicity and universality to be of Him and from 
Him, with more than mathematical precision. 
The radiant light of this divinely founded Orb is 
its faith, which is not in antagonism with reason, 
but, from its nature, is pre-eminently superior to 
reason. Of this glorious Orb, which is fringed 
with dazzling effulgence, because it is the Kingdom 
and throne of God on earth, I shall say more in 
the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XI. 
Religion — Its definition — Its divine origin — Its 

UNITY— Is IT in the POWER OF MAN TO FOUND 
TRUE REI.IGION ? — CaN MAN IMPROVE THE 
RELIGION FOUNDED BY THE REDEEMER ? — 
Can MEN PREACH AUTHORITATIVELY WITHOUT 
BEING SENT BY APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY ?—FaLSE 

charges preferred against the catholic 
Church and her visible head, refuted. 

Because of the certainty of human reviviscence, 
the term religion is v^orthy of a careful, philosoph- 
ical examination. If there were no invisible 
worlds, then its examination v^ould not be neces- 
sary ; but upon an admission of the certainty of 
their existence, the study of religion and its prac- 
tice are obligatory on every member of the human 
family. The excuse that ^^as we did not know 
the true religion, we could not obey its commands, 
or live up to its teachings,'^ will not be accepted 
in the next world, because, where we ought to 
know and do not, ^ve shall be held accountable. 
Besides, the object that God had in view in creating 
us, was to know, love and serve Him, and, as a 
re\\rard, to be happy here and hereafter. 

That God be known, loved and served, a 
knowledge of Him must pre-exist our love and 

worship of Him, because it is not consonant with 

234 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 233 

reason to love and serve that of ^vhich we are 
entirely ignorant, and therefore, the medinm 
promotive of this kno^edge, love and service, 
must be found out, and after being discovered, 
must be studied, and after being studied, its teach- 
ings must be practiced, in order that the soul, after 
its separation from its body, may enter on the 
enjoyment of eternal happiness. 

The word ^^ religion, '^ is derived from the Latin 
term, religio, which is either from relegere, to 
^^ gather again, ^' or from religare, to *^ bind again.'' 
It is not derived from the Greek, because the word 
in Greek which expresses religion, is eulabeia, eu, 
**well,'' and lambano, ^Ho reverence,'' which is 
different in form from religio. Neither is the word 
from the Hebrew. 

We have already seen that when God created 
man, He clothed him with natural and supernat- 
ural raiment, exquisitely beautiful, and that, from 
his act of disobedience, he forfeited those gifts — 
that is, he was deprived of original justice. After 
being confronted by his Creator, and condemned, 
a promise of redemption was made to him, and 
with this promise religion commenced to exist. 
From this it will be seen that religion is coeval 
with man, and consists of a conception of God, as 
Creator, Lawmaker and Redeemer. From Adam 
to the advent of the Redeemed, men lived conform- 
able to their faith in the existence of a creative 
God, and in the promise of redemption. Of course 
the promise could neither *^ re-collect nor re-com- 



2j6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

bine'' man's forfeited gifts till it was fulfilled, 
because an infinite chasm, resulting from the 
malice of mortal sin, separated man from God, 
which no limited being could bridge. Mercy 
argued against justice and prevailed, for the 
Eternal Word put on the weeds of humanity, by 
becoming man, and, by His death, bridged the 
awful chasm and restored man to the friendship of 
his Creator. Not only was he restored, but hewras 
elevated to the dignity of brotherhood with the 
Redeemer. Oh ! what an elevation for man ! Oh ! 
w^hat a humiliation for God, ^tvho assumed our 
nature that we might participa^te in His divinity. 

Before the Incarnate Word ransomed man. He 
gave existence to His Church, and appointed a 
visible head to pre^de over her and teach all those 
who would profess faith in her divinity. Peter— 
the rock, was the person He selected to preside 
over His Church. To this apostle He said : *^Thou 
art Peter, a rock, and upon this rock I will build 
my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it. '"^ When this promise was tittered the 
future church ^was only in posse ; but shortly after 
it passed from a possible to an actual state, by 
the potency of Him who built the celestial spheres. 

The Church, then, founded by the Redeemer is - 
the collective body of Christians, ^who are a unit 
in faith, and who submit to the spiritual direction 
of the visible head Jesus Christ appointed to pre- 
side over them. The Church of God must be a 



*Matt.xvi, i8. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 23^ 

unit in faith, because she is the ^* pillar and ground 
of truth.''** Truth cannot announce to me a thing 
as true, and to another, as false. When such is 
the case, it is not truth, but falsehood, and the 
church that makes such, is not of God, but of man. 
To demonstrate to the world of man that the 
Church the Redeemer was about to found would 
be a unit in faith. He said: ^^And other sheep I 
have that are not of this fold ; them also I must 
bring ; and they shall hear my voice ; and there 
shall be made one fold and one shepherd. "f The 
Gentiles were the sheep referred to here ; who, 
although, children of God by creation, yet were 
not His by belief in or practice of the Jewish reli- 
gion. But, as the Jewish code and ceremonial 
were now about to give place to the Christian, 
the Gentiles as t^cU as the Jews, were to be 
brought into the one fold, in which there would be 
unity of faith. 

^*And not for them only do I pray, but for those 
also who through their words shall believe in me ; 
that they all may be one (in faith) as thou Father, 
in me, and I in thee ; that they also may be one in 
us; that the world may believe that thou hast 
sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, 
I have given to them ; that they may be one, as we 
also are one. "ft 

Christ did not only pray for His apostles, but 
for all those who would become members of the 
Church through their preaching. And the object 

** I. Epis. to Tim. iii, 15. 

t John X, 16. 

ft Ibid, xvii, 20, 22. 



238 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

of His prayer was unity of faith — a unity as close 
as that which existed between Him and His heav- 
enly Father. The Church was now a reality and 
Peter — the rock on whom it w^as built, ^^as about 
to receive his commission. Although Jesus mani- 
fested Himself to His apostles after His resurrec- 
tion, and although. He gave Peter supreme 
authority by commanding Him to feed His lambs 
and sheep'^ with the Bread of Life, and with the 
unity of sound doctrine, yet he did not receive the 
plenitude of power to give expansion to the 
Church. But it was not long delayed ; *^ for Jesus 
coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given 
to me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, 
and teach all nations ; baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things v;.^hat- 
soever I have commanded you, and behold I am 
with you all days even to the consummation of 
the world.''** 

Agreeable to the advice of the Redeemer, the 
apostles were not to execute this command until 
they received the Holy Ghost. Here the wisdom 
of God is seen in a v;ronderful manner. He knew 
that frail men, such as were the apostles, could 
not rescue the votaries of paganism from its dis- 
gusting rites without the aid of the Holy Spirit, 
and hence, the necessity of His reception, that they 
might receive the necessary force, the miraculous 
and sensible po^cver to bring over to God, the 

* John xxi, 17. 

** Math, xxviii, 19, 20. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 2JQ 

followers of Epicurus, who assumed pleasure to be 
the highest and most noble good. 

^^ And when the days of Pentecost were accom- 
plished, they ^^ere alltogether in the same place; 
and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as 
of a mighty wind coming ; and it filled the whole 
house where they were sitting. And there appeared 
to them cloven tongues as it were of fire ; and it 
sat upon each of them. And they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost ; and they began to speak 
with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost 
gave them to speak. '^^*^ 

The Holy Spirit had no sooner breathed upon 
'them than their previous pusillanimity gave way 
to a heroism, a stability which characterized their 
course during their lives. Charity inflamed their 
hearts, while faith shed its light upon their souls 
with greater glare than did the noon-day sun 
upon their bodies. O ! how softly soothing, how 
deliciousl^^ refreshing is the grace of the Holy 
Spirit to the human soul. During its presence the 
soul forgives, fears, loves and swoons under its 
ecstatic influence. It gives the soul strength to 
profess faith in the existence of God, in the divine 
origin of His religion, and enables it to love Him 
and serve Him in accents of tender gratitude. It 
does more. It gives the soul a foretaste of 
heaven's joys. 

Upon the reception of the Holy Ghost, the 
Apostles constituted the Church. Through their 

*** Acts, ii, I, 4. 



24.0 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

preaching she extended herself through the little 
kingdom of Judea, and from thence, throughout the 
world. In expanding herself, she employed no 
brute force, no suppression of the inherent right of 
man, nothing that remotely tended to coerce the 
human will. The only force that she used was the 
promise of eternal happiness to those ^who accepted 
and practiced the doctrine which she preached. 
Some admired the purity and holiness of this 
doctrine and embraced it. Others regarded it with 
wonder mingled ^th approbation, but concluded 
that its practice was beyond the powers of their 
^nature. Yet others, from distorted reason, and 
from being submerged in the depravity of pagan- 
ism, looked upon it and its exponents with 
prejudice and hatred, and hence, persecuted them, 
as did the Jews the Redeemer. The Catholic 
Church, during her eventful history, which is that 
of the world's civilization, has been thousands of 
times baptized in the blood of her children. And 
yet she is young and beautiful, healthy and attract- 
ive, without speck or wrinkle, and will be to the 
end of time, because she is the spouse of Christ, 
against which the powers of hell will not prevail. 
But more than once, it has been asserted, but 
not proved, that the Catholic religion of this day 
is not that which the apostles preached. If it be 
not, then what else ? Is it a human institution ? 
No. The religion our Lord established cannot be 
reduced to the condition of a human religion. 
When did the Catholic Church fall away ? When 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 241 

did she assume the garments of corruption, of 
deception and intrigue? When was she innocu- 
lated with the germs of error, of discord and 
disunion? At no time in her history. If the 
Church fell into error, w^hy is not the defection 
objectively demonstrated? Why did not her 
learned churchmen of Asia, of Africa and of Europe 
find out when and where the defection took place ? 
Ought not her renowned theologians, her profound 
philosophers, her deep scientists and her truthful 
historians know when this presumed corruption in 
doctrine commenced its unholy work ? But they 
do not, because the Catholic Church of this day is 
the same in doctrine, in unity, in sanctity, in apos- 
to.licity and universality, that she was in the days 
of the apostles. 

Now as light and heat are inseparable from a 
body in a state of combustion, so is truth from the 
Church the Redeemer founded. Truth is an inher- 
ent quality in her, from which she cannot be 
divorced any more than ether can from its tenuity. 
He who believes that the Incarnate Word is 
Eternal Truth, must believe that His Church is the 
essence of truth, and that her depositum of faith 
is truth too. To oppose opinion to this reasoning 
is as vapid as to assert that an ellipse and a circle 
are one and the same in geometrical value. 

Now, again, I ask any candid man, how could 
the church fall into error which has the Holy Spirit 
for her exponent and Christ, our Lord, the God of 
truth, for her invisible Head? He said that He 



242 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

would ^^be with her all days, even to the consum- 
mation of the v^orld/'* As the Redeemer promised 
His apostles that He ^^ould send them the Holy 
Ghost, who would teach them all truth and abide 
with them forever,! it follows, therefore, that the 
Church did not and could not fail, because the God 
of truth has kept His promise. Before the Cath- 
olic Church fails, the celestial spheres will fall out 
of their orbits, and time will cease to exist. 

Without using severe language, or vivid word- 
coloring, I will simply state that the charge of 
defection was not preferred against the Catholic 
Church, before evil passion demanded deification. 
So soon as this was acquiesced in, the charge was 
echoed by individuals v^ho knew little or nothing 
of her eventful history. As an instance of this, an 
Anglican divine, with v^hom I had a controversy, 
asserted that ^^the Romish Church became corrupt 
during the Dark Ages, by using formulas of wor- 
ship, and by the introduction of principles, which 
were never used or taught by the apostles, and 
that, because of these, the Ruso-Greek and Anglican 
churches seceded from the Romish Church. ''$ 

When I catechised my opponent on the truth of 
his assertions, I made it mathematically clear that 
his intellect was darker than the Ages he referred 
to, for he knew little of their history, and nothing 
of the causes that induced the Greek and Anglican 
schisms. 

* Matt xxviii. 

t John xiv, 5. 

j See the Vahey Controversial I^etters. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 243 

As the oxygen of our atmosphere has an affinity 
for the carbon and hydrogen of the fuel in our 
stoves, so had the Greek and AngHcan schisms for 
imposition, cruelty and sensuality. In order to 
be popular with the world of man, they ignored 
ethical teaching and set equal value upon virtue 
and vice, upon truth and falsehood, and upon hon- 
esty and dishonesty. This is undeniable from the * 
testimony of history which tells us plainly that 
avarice and sensuality constituted the intrinsic 
essence of these schisms, which are nothing more 
than tyranical, national systems. These systems, 
which have no unity, no sanctity, no universality, 
no apostolicity, no history beyond that of their 
founders and no tradition, are built upon opinions 
and mutilated scriptural quotations. From their 
nature they are bound to hate and persecute. The 
brute force used by the Anglican, to gain wealth 
and expansion, is so revolting to the instincts of 
religion, justice and reason that one would be 
inclined to doubt its employment, if history did 
not record it. Persecution the most cruel, by way 
of decapitation, mutilation, transportion, impris- 
onment, deprivation of property and a general 
oppression, which has led to irremediable poverty 
and degradation, was poured out, like a sea of 
lava, on helpless Christians who refused to accept 
Anglicanism as the work of a just and holy God. 
And yet it says to the world that it is of the meek 
Jesus; that it is holy and universal! 

We have seen that, when Christianity breathed 



244 ^^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

her soft, pure, holy and balmy breath upon our 
planet, its inhabitants, except a few Jews, were 
steeped in the vices of idolatry. Babylon and 
Corinth deified passion by consecrating temples to 
the worship of Venus and Baccus. The philosophy 
of Solon taught that women should be loaned, in 
order that the human race might be improved, '' 
while Plato in his Republic taught that '^they 
should take part in the public games/' These 
legislators, to promote the "worship of Venus, 
ignored the inspirations of nature and the first 
principles of morality ; opposed to those sensual 
systems w^as the Catholic religion — a 'religion of 
purity, love and light. Her arms were grace, 
meekness and suffering; and with these the Church 
conquered. At a later day she had to confront 
the Burgundians, the Franks and the Vandals, 
Northern barbarians, who poured down, like a host 
of destroying angels, on the feeble, effeminate, 
Roman empire and divided it among themselves. 
At a still later period, she had to confront Atila, 
Alaric and Genseric, whose hosts, with the North- 
ern barbarians she converted. At this period of 
Christian civilization, where were those modern 
religions, which are made up of opinions, and pro- 
fess no particular religion at all? Where were 
those protesting denominations that are drifting 
into infidelity ? Where were those human religions 
that are so hostile to the Catholic Church ? They 
were not. They were non-entities. They came 
fifteen hundred years too late, into time, to span 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 2^f.s 

those ages, during which nations and states were 
brought to a knowledge of God through the 
preaching of the Catholic Church. 

But the Dark Ages, what of them? After all, 
they were not so very dark. I have met many intel- 
lects that were darker than they were. Those who 
arrogate the right to conduct their fellows through 
the narrow road that leads to the Kingdom of 
heaven, and, at the same time, close the wnndows 
of their souls against the admission of the lumi- 
nous rays of truth, are darker than those Ages 
were. During those Ages the Catholic Church had 
to encounter the civil power, which was pagan, or 
semi-pagan, and which persecuted her. She had to 
encounter too, philosophies that w^ere partly 
pagan and partly Christian, which induced 
schisms. During these Ages she elevated woman, 
incorporated into our laws principles of justice, 
preserved the Holy Scriptures and the writings of 
pagans. She did more. She promoted the study 
of the arts and sciences and she filled the deserts 
with saints, who now enjoy the Beatific Vision. 
If space permitted I could fill pages with the won- 
derful works of the Catholic Church during the 
Dark Ages. 

At this digression which resulted from the 
vapid assertions of my Anglican friend, I hope the 
reader will not be displeased, since it is instructive. 

Now, as there is only ^* one Lord, ^' so there is 
but *' one faith and one baptism, ''$ and hence but 

X Eph. iv, 5. 



246 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

one true Church which results from and is based 
on unity of faith. To assert that all denomina- 
tional creeds are branches of the one Christian 
tree would be logically false, because their fruit is 
dissimilar. No two of them believe alike and they 
all disavow being Catholic, except the Anglican. 
In this they are consistent with history which 
informs us that they came into the world fifteen 
hundred years too late, as before stated, to claim 
this mark of the one, true Church. 

Material solidity is the result of cohesive attrac- 
tion. The law of affinity attracts molecules, but 
if there be no reciprocal afiinity between them — 
that is, if they repel each other, they form no solid 
mass. As it is with the material compound, so is 
it with the religious complex. If there be incessant 
division, there is no unified religion. 

If we investigate the external w^orks of God, 
we find them a unit in substance, although differ- 
ent in form. In angelic nature there is unity and 
in complex man there is unity. In the Divine Persons 
of the Trinity there is unity. Then, unity marks 
the Avorks of God. Yes, and it is an essential 
mark of His Church. That the faith of Catholics 
is one, is as evident as is the presence of the noon- 
day sun to material vision. Although the collect- 
ive body is composed of various nationalities, 
\^ho speak different languages. Yet, in divine 
faith they are a unit, and this breathes as softly 
on their souls as do the zephyrs on the leaflets. 
Oh! how calm and quiet, how patient and hopeful, 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 24*/ 

how pure and holy is the faith of CathoHcs which 
is never severed by delirious dreams antagonistic 
to its unity. 

Can man give existence to a religion in which 
salvation can be obtained ? He can not. No one 
but God can found, establish, or give existence to 
religion. If any man attempt to establish religion, 
it will be imperfect, because a result, or an effect 
from an imperfect cause. If it be established by 
such agency, it will be purely human, and will 
have no positive character, no unity, no sanctity, 
no universality, no apostolicity, nothing essential 
to the vitality of true religion. In its action, from 
its nature, it will be negative. To a thinking 
Christian mind, it must be evident that man can- 
not give existence to true religion, because he is a 
limited being, and, therefore, has no creative 
power. Creation and design belong to God, and 
are always active. To man belongs the construc- 
tion of pre-existing materials, but he must not 
attempt to re-construct, or improve anything in 
the supernatural order, when he does, he misleads. 
And if the blind lead the blindj will they not both 
fall into the ditch. 

Can man improve true religion ? He cannot. 
He might as well attempt to improve the sun's 
light, or the motion of bodies in space. The works 
of God admit of no improvement, being perfect. 
Some of them, such as air, water and electricity, 
he can utilize, but cannot improve. 

Can man preach true religion without being 



24.8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

sent ? No. He must be sent as Christ was by His 
heavenly Father, and as He sent His apostles. 
Christ said to His apostles : ^^ As my Father hath 
sent me, I also send you,"* and St. Paul says: 
*' How can they preach unless they besent?"t If 
any one attempt to preach without being sent, he 
is a usurper, because he exercises his ministry 
without authority. To preach the Gospel, one 
must have authority, by an unbroken succession, 
from the apostles. Hence, the necessity of apos- 
toHcity in the one, true Church. 

Could God authorize men to establish religions 
that contradict each other and deny the revealed 
dogmas of the Christian religion ? No. Such 
authorization cannot be supposed, because it 
would argue mutability in God. As the creation 
of the universe supposes omnipotent Power, so 
does iiie founding of true religion. It must be the 
work of God, and as such, must be perfect, pure 
and holy. Did the Redeemer appoint teachers of 
the religion He founded? He did. ^^ God gave 
apostles, and some prophets, and others evan- 
gelists, and others pastors and teachers for the 
perfection of the saints .... that we may not now 
be children tossed to and fro, and carried about 
by every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of 
men, in craftiness by which they He in wait to 
deceive.''* The fact is here clearly demonstrated 
that the Redeemer, before He ascended to His 

* John XX, 21 . 

t Romans x, 15. 

* EJphes. iv, 11-14. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 24() 

heavenly Father, left in His Church a perpetual 
succession of teachers to preserve the faithful in 
the unity of true religion. 

After various philosophical examinations of 
human religions, I have arrived at the conclusion 
that they have resulted from culpable aberrations 
which bid defiance to God, religion, law and order. 
Should any one refuse to accept this conclusion, I 
refer him to the ^^ theology?' of Calvin which 
destroys human freedom through its admission of 
absolute necessity.^** If man be forced to act, then, 
according to the teaching of this man, God is the 
author of sin. Not only did Calvin teach this 
horrid doctrine, but Melancthon, also, who said 
'^that God is the author of evil as well as of 
good.'M' Luther preached in public and in private 
that ^^ man is entireh^ passive, and that the preach- 
ing of the Gospel has inherent in it the pardoning 
mercy of God.'^tt 

The fanaticism of John of Leyden, of Fox, of 
Barclay, of Knox, of Cromwell and King Henry 
VIII, was so fiercely formidable, so proscriptive, 
so intolerant, in giving being to human religions 
that the honest Christian becomes astounded, and 
turns from an examination of the darksome means 
employed, to that mild, glorious Orb which shines 
with greater effulgence in the human horizon than 
does the sun in heaven^s blue dome. 

I shall conclude this chapter by a refutation of 

*==* Calvini, Inst. rel. Christ, lib. i. cap. i6, n. 8. 
t Melaiic. Comm. in Kpis ad Romanos. 
•ft Apolog. iv, p. 69. 



2JO The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

criminal charges preferred against the Catholic 
Church by persons who are ignorant of her 
intrinsic nature and history ; of her divine founda- 
tion and mission. It has been asserted more than 
once, but never proved, that she persecuted human 
beings for their non-belief in her divine origin. A 
charge of this kind has been preferred against her 
by one J. I. Swander, a parson of Fremont, Ohio, 
in an article written by him for the New York 
Microcosm, In said article, which is semi-lauda- 
tory of Gordiano Bruno, he says : ^' The Protest- 
ant part of the Christian world will never cease to 
render its profound commisseration to the Balti- 
more cardinal and his ^Holy Father,^ in view of 
the disagreeable reminder which the record of that 
occasion'' (the unveiling of a statue erected to 
honor Bruno's memory,) '^must ever call forth. 
It will continue to remind the church of the inqui- 
sition that its history is crimsoned with the blood 
of martyrs, and many of the chapters thereof 
darkened with some of the damnable deeds of 
intolerance."''' 

There is nothing at all strange in the many 
laudations lavished on Bruno by Protestantism. 
It is intrinsic in the nature of things that kindred 
elements attract each other. Although this is 
true, yet neither this man nor any other should 
prefer a criminal charge against an individual or 
collective body, unless he is able to prove the same. 
Now I defy any Protestant minister in this country 

^Microcosm, No. 2, p. 21, 



The Visible and Invisible Woi^lds, 2ji 

to prove from truthful history that the Spanish 
Inquisition was the ^v^ork of the Catholic Church. 

AH those who have read the history of Spain, 
acknowledge that the Inquisition was the ^work of 
the State, and was directed against the JeT\rs and 
Moors, who threatened the life of the State; and 
what ^will not a State do to preserve its 
autonomy. Laurent, Villeneuve and Puigblanch, 
who were cut off from the Church, have bequeathed 
a so-called history of the Inquisition to Protest- 
antism, which is as untrue and as corrupt as is 
the Bible it is built upon. 

If reverend J. I. Swander were familiar with the 
history of the birth and expansion of Protestant- 
ism, he Vv^ould find '^many of the chapters thereof 
darkened with some damnable deeds of intol- 
erance.'' He would find that Felix Mans, an 
Anabaptist, was drowned at the instigation of 
Zwinglius, because he was a heretic ; that Gentilis 
was beheaded for holding heretical doctrine ; that 
Sylvanus of Ladenburg was put to the sword at 
Heidlebergfor heterodoxy; that Crell was beheaded 
for having embraced Calvinism; that Henning 
was executed, because, in the judgment of the 
reformers, he held conferences with the devil. In 
the district of Nuremburg, from the year 1577 to 
1617, three hundred and fifty-six persons were 
executed for heresy , and three hundred and forty- 
nine were mutilated for the same offense,"* Again, 
if the reverend J. I. Swander were familiar with 

** Bernard's Reportery, 1SS2, p. 301. 



2§2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

the history of the Anabaptists, he would find 
that, in the 16th century, in the name of a just and 
holy God, this sect invaded all property within 
their reach, abolished the civil power for the time 
being, and, everywhere, within the plane of their 
fierce fanaticism, spread desolation and death. If 
he were familiar with the history of Anglicanism, 
a branch of the Protestant tree, he would find 
that the voice of nature, animate and inanimate, 
of savage and civilized humanity is raised against 
the blood-stained penal laws, ^svhich were ful- 
minated against Catholics in the name of a just 
and holy God.^** It is a fact authenticated by 
history that the Catholic Church, time and again^ 
condemned the Spanish Inquisition, but the State 
smiled at the impotency of the condemnation and 
pursued its dreadful, rigorous course. 

Speaking of the Inquisition, Ranke says: ^^It 
was above all things, in spirit and object a political 
institution. ^'t Guizot says : ^^The Inquisition w^as 
more political than religious, and Avas destined 
rather for the maintenance of order than the 
defence of the faith. ' ' ft 

Again, false testimony comes under our notice, 
uttered against the Church by a ^'reverend'' 
Lorimer of Chicago, who regaled the intellects of 
the citizens of Holyoke (Mass.) on the devil-wor- 
ship of Catholics. In the course of his 'lecture'' 
he said: ^^Yes, I detest the Roman Catholic reli- 

*** See Cobbet's Refor. passim, 
t Ranke in Fiirsten and Volker, vol. i, p. 242. 

ft Guizot, cours de histoire moderne, I^ect. v. See, also, Prescot, vol. i> 
p. 254. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 2jj 

gion with all that is in me. With its roots back 
in Rome, surrounded by papal worms, Catholicism 
sends its branches out to poison and curse the 
world. Oh ! Oh ! Oh ! How I do detest it, root and 
branch ! I abhor it ! You know that I am a scotch- 
man and was educated in America, therefore it is 
natural for me to detest the catholic religion. Oh ! 
I detest and hate that schism, schism, schism. But 
w^e must admit there are some good people in the 
catholic church, although they worship devils and 
virgins and statues ; some of our catholic girls are 
good, although they worship these devils. Oh! 
but that schism, that schism, that schism is \^hat 
Ihatel^'ttt 

The paper from which I clipj)ed the above speci- 
men of pulpit oratory, stated that *' group by 
group passed through the door until the hall was 
almost entirely deserted. Then the reverend 
gentleman staggered back on the stage/ ^ 

From a glance at this invective, lying phraseol- 
ogy the candid reader will arrive at the conclusion 
that the illusion and fanaticism of this man 
demonstrate the innate weakness of his mind, and 
a consequent inability to discharge the duties of a 
preacher in this country, in which all forms of 
religion are on the ^ame plane of civil equality. 
The founder of Protestantism, Luther, under whose 
banner this man preaches, saw the devil, had many 
colloquies with the devil, and, finely, was van- 
quished by the devil. This man, more hypocritical 

ttt Chicago Herald, Feb. 24, 1890. 



2^4- ^^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

than his master did not state that he saw the 
devil, but he did that he knew those who wor- 
shipped the devil, and although they worshipped 
his Satanic majesty, yet some of them are good. 
The mind that so reasons is Calvinistic, indeed. 

The philosophico-religious tirade of this deluded 
parson amalgamates, mixes and confounds evil 
with good. Ho^w one who worships the devil, can 
be good, is more than I can conceive. How% or in 
what manner Catholics worship devils, virgins 
and statues, he did not say ; he left the problem to 
be solved by the audience who became disgusted 
and left the hall. Upon their departure, *^he 
staggered back on the stage,'' folded up his wings 
on which he hoped to sail through the crystalline 
sky of oratory to fame, but his hope was blighted 
by the abnormity of his intellect, and now, he 
broods over the hideous picture his distorted mind 
painted. 

On the following Sunday, in plaintive lachrymal 
utterances, he expressed sorrow, -while his apolo- 
gist, a brother Baptist, attributed the low, vulgar, 
lying, insulting statement to an overdose of 
quinine. Whether quinine produces derangement 
of the intellect or not, I will not here discuss, but 
en passantj I would advise parson Lorimer to 
forego the use of quinine, w^henever he attempts 
to lecture on Catholics and their Church. 

The fact, that parson Lorimer ^^ was a Scotch- 
man and w^as educated in America,'' does not at 
all render his ^'therefore " logically true. The real, 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds^ 255 

undeniable fact is that, this ^ therefore'' was 
deduced from a very shallow knowledge of the 
philosophy of true history, and from the spleen of 
Calvinism. All men educated in this country are 
fairminded, liberal and lovers of sound, logical 
reasoning, except those who are imbued with the 
persecuting spirit of Henry VIII. of England and 
of the ferocious fanaticism of John Knox of Scot- 
land. 

^^But the Catholic Church, a foreign establish- 
ment, is opposed to our public school system/^ 
exclaim some non-Catholics. The Catholic Church 
is not any more foreign to this country than sun- 
light is. As the duty of the sun is to diffuse light 
and heat on our planet, so is that of the Church, 
to disseminate true faith. A divinely founded 
Church, commanded by the Almighty to preach 
His Gospel to every living creature, and to teach 
all nations, cannot be foreign to any nation. This 
truth is self-evident. History testifies that, for the 
last fifteen hundred years, the Catholic Church has 
been to nations a great moral power, a promoter 
of true political greatness and stability; that she 
created, or if you will, formed a basis on which 
social and political edifices rest, and that from her, 
as light from its source, or water from a fountain, 
flowed virtue, truth, justice and honesty which 
are as necessary to the healthy vitality of the 
State, as is air to animal lungs. 

It is not true that the Catholic Church is 
opposed to the public school system. That which 



2^6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

is good in it she admires; that which is bad in it she 
condemns. She is opposed to the public school 
system, 012/7, in as much as it is built on a pagan 
foundation. To prove the truth of this assertion, 
I shall quote from the writings of a pagan philoso- 
pher, Aristotle, who says: ^^As the object of society 
is one, the education of its members should be one. 
Education should be public, not private ; if it be 
private, then, each one teaches his children as he 
pleases. As each citizen is a part of society, the 
care given to the part should extend to the 
whole. ^'^ The Catholic Church is opposed to the 
public school system only, in as much as it pro- 
motes infidelity, through the absence of Christian 
instruction. The means used or the methods 
employed in the public schools to impart to children 
a secular education she admires, but not that 
which divorces the religious from the secular. If 
man had no future beyond the grave, the religious 
might be separated from the secular ; but he has, 
and hence, the necessity of a religious education, 
which is as far superior to a secular one, as heaven 
is to our planet. Religion, as the science of sci- 
ences, to be known, must be studied, in order that 
the po^wers of the soul may pass from passivity to 
loving activity. This the force of the term, edu- 
cation, indicates, because its root, ^^educere," 
means to ^^ bring forth, to lead forth, to draw 
out.'' The intrinsic powers of the human soul 
must be drawn out by external mediums, and 

* Polit. lib. viii, c. i. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 2^7 

centered on moral and religious problems, as ^well 
as on mathematical. It is this true philosophy 
wHich induces the Catholic Church to educate her 
Children in schools under her own supervision. 
She obliges parents to give their children a religi- 
ous education in connection with a secular one. 

Is not a youth, whose mind has no Christian 
development, a material infidel ? When he arrives 
at manhood, w411 he not be found in the ranks of 
infidels ? This is so mathematically true that, it 
cannot be denied, because there is no middle state. 
Either the youth is advancing towards God, or he 
is receding from Him. But as moral ideas are not 
enforced in the public schools, w^hich restrain pas- 
sion, and as ideas of God's eternal being, holiness 
and justice are not imparted to children in those 
institutions, it follows from the inexorable law of 
logic that they are receding from God, and are 
advancing towards formal infidelity. But the 
principles of morality, of truth, honesty and 
industry must be impressed on the mind of a child, 
so soon as it is susceptible of receiving them. Are 
these inculcated on the minds of the public 
school children? They are not, but the principle of 
indifferentism is. 

Now why are not all men mathematicians and 
astronomers? Because they were not taught these 
sciences. Why are not all men Christians? For 
the same reason. Then, to be a true Christian, an 
astronomer, or a mathematician, one has to be 
taught these. Of the truth of this there can be no 



2^8 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

doubt, because there is nothing in the human 
mind, except that which has been imparted to it 
by external mediums. Then, as all our knowledge 
is acquired from without, the instruction of chil- 
dren in the knowledge of God, of morality, of 
honesty, of parental love and respect, follows as a 
necessity. Yes. Any other conclusion would be 
detrimental to the spiritual welfare of children, the 
harmony of the family circle and society in general. 
Catholic parents whose minds are impressed by 
the truth of this reasoning, do all in their power 
to give their children a Christian education, and 
^while discharging this duty are forced, by ^what 
is called 7a vr, to sustain institutions that ignore 
God and Christianity, and foster infidelity. But 
some one will say (it has been said already) that 
^Hhe State, as ^tvell as the parents, has rights in 
children, and therefore, that it can insist on their 
education. '^ This theory examined under the light 
of philosophy, is proselytism sustained by tyran- 
nical force. What is the state intrinsically but 
brute matter, ^which is devoid of instructive force. 
By a figure of speech those who act on its surface 
are called the state, and by a blindness peculiar to 
the instincts of irreligion, claim the right, which is 
repugnant to the natural and revealed laws, to 
teach their fellows religion and morality. Now, is 
it not axiomatic to an honest, thinking mind that 
my neighbor has no right, against my will, to 
teach my children religion and morality? But 
infidels who framed the unjust law, which sup- 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2^g 

presses the relation that exists between parent 
and child, did not see its injustice, because the 
term is meaningless to their intellects. 

By the law of nature parents, being the 
guardians of their children, are bound to feed and 
clothe them ; and by the revealed law, they are 
bound to give them a Christian and moral educa- 
tion. But the collective body, improperly called 
the state, discharge this duty through Bible- 
reading in the public schools. Upon what is 
this based? On a false assumption of power, 
which is an infringement on the liberty of con- 
science, so dear to every free man. Is not the 
enforcement of Bible-reading in our public schools 
a foul stigma on our liberty of conscience ? Does 
the school teacher understand the Bible he reads 
to the children? He does not. Do the children 
understand the chapter that is read to them? They 
do not. Does the reading of the Bible in the public 
schools produce pious thoughts in the children's 
minds ? Does it attune their intellects to superna- 
tural activity? Does it create in their hearts a 
standard of morality ? It does not, because they 
pay no attention to the part that is read to them. 
Besides, their undeveloped intellects cannot grasp 
and analize the ideas that are couched in the 
chapter which^is read to them. The holy Scriptures 
which God has partly made the media for the 
diffusion of religious knowledge, require a higher 
order of intellectuality to interpret them than that 
of school teachers. This the impartial reader will 
grant to be true. 



26o The Visible and Invisible Worlds* 

I have already stated that, of all books written 
the Scriptures are the most difficult to be under- 
stood ; and yet, the apostles of the reformation, 
who corrupted them, exclaimed to the uneducated 
peasants; ^^We deliver the Scriptures to you in 
your native tongue, as your sole rule of faith. 
Through them you will learn Gospel truth and see 
the errors of Popery." The ignorant, credulous 
multitude accepted them as a boon from heaven, 
and the result v^as that, all who could read them 
became scripturians, theologians and philosophers. 
In their judgment, this sudden light was the gift 
of the Holy Spirit. If it were, is it not reasonable 
to suppose that He would give them to understand 
that the Scriptures, which they received from the 
apostles of the reformation, were awfully errone- 
ous. Why were they corrupted ? To afford a basis 
for the various religions which were soon to be 
evoked into existence to rest on. 

To discuss, here, the events that have resulted 
from a false translation of the Scriptures, and 
from the low opinion the reformers entertained of 
them, would be useless repetition, so familiar are 
we with them. However, without adverting to 
the dreadful consequences which have resulted from 
the private interpretation of the Scriptures, I shall 
place before the reader Luther's appreciation of 
them. 

Of the Pentateuch the apostle of the reforma- 
tion says: *^We have no wish to hear or see 
Moses, He is the prince and exemplar of all 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 261 

executioners; in inflicting torture and in tyran- 
nizing he is without a rival.'' Of Ecclesiastes : 
'^ This book is mutilated ; it is like a cavalier riding 
without boots or spurs." Of Judith and Tobias: 
*' Judith is a tragedy in which the end of all 
tyrants may be learned. As to Tobias, it is a 
comedy in which there is a great deal of talk 
about women," Of the Epistle to the Hebrews: 
**It need not surprise one to find here bits of 
wood, hay and straw." Of the Epistle of St. 
James : ^^ This is one of straw," and of the Apoca- 
l^^pse: *^ There are many things objectionable in 
this book."* 

Can it be wondered that Catholics object to 
the reading of a Bible in the public schools, cor- 
rupted and despised by this man ? Can it be 
w^ondered that they protest against teaching their 
children Bible religion v^hich has no basis other 
than human ? 

How can this question be settled ? By the for- 
mation of separate schools. Let the Catholics and 
the various denominations of Protestantism have 
their own schools, their own teachers, in v^hich 
and through whom their religious principles may 
be taught. Let each receive his portion of the 
school fund. This will injure no denomination, 
and infidelity will be retarded in this country, and 
it should, because it is an imported anaconda. 

Will not this increase the number of Catholics ? 
It will. But wall not this be detrimental to Pro- 

* Vide Opp. lyUtheri de Scripturis sacris. 



262 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

testantism? No. It will be of service to it, because 
there are more Protestants speeding towards 
infidelity than Catholics. Do those Catholics who 
fall away from the religion of their baptism, 
become Protestants? No. Some become indifferent, 
while others enter the ranks of infidelity. 

In concluding my remarks on the public school 
question, I will relate a circumstance which forcibly 
proves that secular education does not lead to a 
knowledge of God, or to a knowledge of man in his 
fallen state. I was, once, through the courtesy of a 
school board, invited as an examiner in one of our 
high schools, which v^as about to grant diplomas 
to those of its scholars who were v^orthy of them. 
As class after class came to be examined, I w^as 
careful to put no question except that which was 
intrinsic in the branches the students ^were to be 
examined in. With the proficiency of the gradu- 
ates in Latin and Greek, I found fault, because 
of their non-rudimentary knowledge of those 
languages, and because they Anglicized them 
too much. With the intrinsic value of a positive, 
a negative, a binomial, a polynomial quantity 
they were, indeed, familiar, as they also were with 
that of a theorem, a polygon, a circle and an 
ellipse. In mathematics they evinced a splendid 
proficiency, to the satisfaction of all present. To 
a young lady w^ho was budding into womanhood, 
and who merited applause because of her wonder- 
ful knowledge of algebraical combinations, binom- 
ial theorems and progression by quotients, I put 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 26 j 

the following qtiestion : ¥/lience the source of the 
evils that afflict the world of man ? and received 
the reply that '^ she did not know.'^ I then asked 
her, what induced the Eternal Word to assume 
human nature? and got a similar reply. To sim- 
plify this question, I asked her: what force was it 
that called the chasm into existence which sep- 
arated man from God, and who bridged this 
chasm? and the response was: ^^I do not know, 
sir/' Here it was remarked that the high school 
*Svas not a theological institution/' To this I 
replied that I was aware of the fact from the young 
lady's non-knowledge of man's fall and his 
redemption. After making a few remarks lauda- 
tory of the proficiency of the graduates in secular 
learning, I went home. On my way, I said to 
myself that those questions, which were of more 
importance than literary ones, would be answered 
by a ten-year-old child in one of our parish 
schools. 

But some credulous non-Catholics, prior to 
elections, ask the following vapid question: ^^Is 
not the Pope, who claims an attribute that 
belongs to God, a potent factor in our politics ?" 
Not any more than the man of the moon is ; but 
bribery is, to our shame be it said. It is this evil 
force that fills our legislative halls with men who 
frame so-called laws which crush the vitals out of 
the laboring class. It is this that promotes class 
legislation which aflfords a basis for trusts and 
monopolies. 



264- The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

It is not true that the Pope claims an attribute 
which belongs to God. Although this charge has 
been time and again refuted, yet it is still preferred 
with an air of honesty and credulity that is aston- 
ishing. The pope, as visible head of a visible 
church, is infallible only in his rendition of a decree 
on faith and morals in his official capacity. The 
impossibility to lead the Church of God into error, 
results from the promise the Redeemer made to 
Peter, ^which reads, ^^ Simon, Simon, behold satan 
hath desired to have you, that he might sift 3"ou 
as wheat ; but I have prayed for you, that your 
faith fail not^ and thou being converted, confirm 
thy brethren. '^^ 

The surnominal word, Cephas^ applied to 
Simon Peter by the Redeemer, designated the 
dignity to ^svhich he was raised and the perpetuity 
of the church that was built upon him. He was 
surnameci Cephas, which term in Syriac signifies a 
Rock; ^^and upon this Rock,'' said Jesus Christ, 
*' I will build my church, and the gates of hell will 
not prevail against it.'^f Subsist it must and will 
till the end of time, and as it w^ll subsist, so will 
the infallibility of Cephas, the Rock, which 
descended to his successors. Of this there can be 
no question, because the logic of common sense 
demands that a church founded on divine revela- 
tion requires an infallible teacher, and an infallible 
exponent to express and preserve the truth of that 
revelation. From controverted questions, which 

* Ivuke xxii, 31, 32. 
t Matt, xvi, 18. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 263 

are submitted to no tribunal higher than private 
opinion, doctrinal errors must result. The pope, as 
visible head of the Catholic Church, must act in 
conformity with her Invisible Head, who rules and 
directs her, and hence, if morals be assailed, if the 
truths of religion be denied, he denounces both. 
The pope is to the Church v^hat the supreme judge 
is to the State. The finality of his decision is 
acquiesced in. 

This dogma of Catholic faith, an Anglican 
minister, with whom I had a controversy, v^hich 
is published, ridiculed, because of the conduct of 
Marcellinus L, Stephen VII., Sergius III. and Alex- 
ander VI. He said : ^^ How can papal infallibility 
be reconciled with the offering of incense to idols 
by Marcellinus, and with the vices of these three 
popes P''"^ 

The evil deeds of the popes have nothing at all 
to do with infallibility. Catholics do not claim 
that the pope is impeccable, but they do claim 
that he cannot lead the Church into error, from 
the force and effectiveness of the promise Jesus 
Christ made to Cephas, the Rock. If it were 
historically proved that this pope offered incense 
to the gods, the proof would only establish the 
fact that the act was private and non-official. But 
I deny that Marcellinus offered incense to idols. 
The calumnious accusation, preferred against this 
pontiffby Petilius, aDonatist, has not been proved. 
Saint Augustin, speaking of Petilius, says: ^*He 

* See the Vahej- Controversial Letters on this question. 



266 The Visible aitd Invisible Worlds. 

calk-d Marcellinus a sacrilegious wretch, but I 
declare him innocent. It is not necessary for me 
to weary myself by the production of proof to 
sustain my defense of Marcellinus, because Petilius 
has not supported his accusation by any proof 
whatever/ ^*^* 

Not only did Saint Augustin deny the fall of 
Marcellinus, but also Baronius, Pagi, Theodoret 
and Natalis Alexander. How the accusation found 
its way into the Breviary of the 26th of April I do 
not know, but I believe it should be expunged, 
because it is only a fable. 

Of Stephen YII. and Sergius III. Bellarminus 
says: ^^They erred by bad example, not by false 
doctrine, ^'t The same maybe said of Alexander 
VI. v^ho was accused of obtaining the pontificate 
hy gifts. It is historically true that, from the 
action of antipopes. Catholic unity suffered, and 
that, from the political action of some legitimate 
popes, the interests of the Church sufiered, too. 
The tenth and the beginning of the eleventh cen- 
turies displayed a weakness in some of those, who 
should have edified the body of the faithful by 
good example. Although this is true, yet w^ere it 
not for the sovereign pontiffs, European civiliza- 
tion would have jdelded to that of Islamism, 
which subjects woman to the disgusting yoke of 
polygamy. 

If any one outside the circle of true faith read the 
lives of two hundred and fifty-nine popes who 

** De Unica baptzs, caput i6. 
t De Rom, pontiflih. iv, c. 12. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 267 

directed the Church during the last eighteen hun- 
dred years, if honest, he will acknowledge that a 
more learned, holy and moral body of men never 
lived on the surface of our planet. He will further 
acknowledge, that the marvelous chain of apostol- 
icity, ^whicli kept them and their countless millions 
of spiritual children, within the bosom of the one, 
true Church is not yet severed. During this long 
period, it has been as continuous and as unbroken, 
as that force which binds body to body in space. 
Oh ! how glorious, how superhuman, is this pon- 
tifical unity, whose history and traditions embrace 
a period of eighteen hundred and ninety years. 
During this long period how bright, how humane 
is the history of the papac^^, compared to that of 
sensualistic, persecuting princes and feudal lords 
who scarcely recognized any power superior to 
their own, who did little to ameliorate the condi- 
tion of man, and who did a great deal to 
antagonize his inherents rights. 

Although vicissitudes and revolutions have suc- 
ceeded each other, and although forms of govern- 
ment have changed, during the last eighteen 
hundred years, yet the papacy has underwent no 
change, and will not to the close of time. 

But time and again it has been asked: *'If the 
Catholic Church be a divine institution, replete 
with celestial sweets, the channel of grace to men^s 
souls, the exponent of their faith, their light and 
true life, why are so many of her children, not only 
bad, but wicked?'' 



268 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

Why did the angels fall, after having enjo^^ed 
the beautiful, dazzling vision of God ? Why did the 
first man fall, after being clothed in natural and 
supernatural raiment of inconceivable beauty, and 
^vhy did Judas, who was schooled in the apostolic 
school, sell his divine Master for a few pieces of 
silver? Because of the mysterious freedom of the 
human will, which can deflect from God at any 
moment, unless sustained by grace. 

In the Church we have three classes: the good, 
the indifferent and the nominal. The good are 
those who fetter will-force, when in pursuit of evil. 
They are those who force themselves to do the will 
of God, and through the eflScacy of grace, to 
assimilate their actions to those of the saints. If, 
through the Vv'eakness of human nature, they fall, 
they immediately rise with redoubled energy, and 
determine, by God's grace, to fall no more. A 
piercing sorro^w marks their transition from sin to 
sanctity. . This class is very numerous, is the pride 
of the Church, -whom she presents to her divine 
Founder, as the price of His Precious Blood. The 
^world does not notice their self-sacrifice, because 
it has no spiritual vision. To the minds of this 
class, who are never intoxicated by shadowy joys, 
the nothingness of the world, the extremes of 
happiness and pain in the invisible worlds, are 
constantly present. As may be expected, this class 
is virtuous, charitable, honest, truthful and sober. 
With mathematical nicety they discharge their 
duties towards their children, the Church and the 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 26Q 

State, and hence, at any moment, after due prepara- 
tion, are ready to enjoy the bliss of heaven. 

The second class, examined by the light of true 
philosophy, is composed of those who submit to a 
teaching authority in matters of faith, but do not 
love, because their faith is non-practical. They 
admire confession, but ignore its practice. Alms- 
deeds they seldom make, and when they do, they 
desire its publicity. The Christian education of 
their children gives them no concern. In trade 
they are sharp, while in friendship they are deceit- 
ful. In a word, their hearts are as full of the 
world, as their lungs are of air. But they must 
die. Let us listen to what they say at daj^'s 
decHne: *Mlas! our hope of a happy eternity is not 
very firm. Our repeated sins of commission and 
omission weigh heavily on us. The scene that 
surrounds us is as dark as it is mournful. Ah! if 
only we could enter on the dawn of life again, we 
would act diiferenth^, but now it is too late, for 
we feel the icy embraces of death ! ■ ' 

To analyze the thirdclass does not require much 
philosophical vision, because the majority of them 
are noxious weeds in the garden of the Church, 
while to society they are a pest. In the horizon of 
society they are as conspicuous as is a comet in the 
dome of heaven, and like it are influenced by no 
law. There is no crime but they are readj^ to com- 
mit, no depth of degradation but they are ready 
to plunge into. When justice places its hand on 
them, as it has now in the Cronin murder case, they 



2'^0 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

say that they ^'are Catholics/' If they placed the 
word, bad, before the term, Catholic, then we could 
determine the value of their Catholicity^ but this 
they will not do, because they are '^wandering 
starSy clouds without water, outcasts who feed on 
and feel happy in their habitual sins/' 

Here it may be asked, what has induced this 
sinful habit? A non-Christian education, a non- 
practical faith, dime novels, the force of tempta- 
tion, an unfettered will, bad companions and 
perilous allurements. These acclimate them to 
crime and harden them in vice. As the Church of 
their baptism is not accountable for their actions, 
infidelity should not point to them as the fruit of 
that religion our Lord established. To charge the 
Church vv4th the evil deeds of bad Catholics, is 
as vapid as to charge God with the Johnstown 
catastrophe. 



CONCLUSION. 

As I have now reached the end of my undertak- 
ing, I will briefly examine the import of the term, 
end. What does it mean? In the first place, it 
signifies the final close of my investigation of the 
vast, immensurable space I passed over and the 
many diflScult questions I treated in the composi- 
tion of my work. In the second, its meaning has 
a wider range, because it conveys the idea that all 
sublunary beings will cease to be. Not only sub- 
lunary entities will cease to exist, but the universe 
itself. A day of wrath, a day of tribulation and 
distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of 
darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirl- 
winds will dawn, whose close will chant the 
requiem of the defunct universe. Our earth will 
be no more, it will be destroyed by fire. The crys- 
talline spheres will be no more, they will melt with 
heat. Where then shall be found those vapid, 
insignificant creatures who denied the existence of 
God and the divine origin of His holy religion? 
Where then shall be found the sumptuous palaces 
of the rich who persecuted the poor? Where then 
shall be found populous cities, kings and states- 
men, who framed and enforced laws destructive of 
the rights of man? Amidst the ashes of our incin- 
erated planet. Will the human soul be thoroughly 



2^/2 The Visible and Invisible Worlds, 

consumed on this final day? No. It will exist for- 
ever. To annihilate it would require an act as 
omnipotent as that which created it. Being simple, 
spiritual essence, it is not subject to demolition. 
As such is the inherent nature of the human soul, 
it will be of advantage to contemplate its departure 
out of time into eternity. 

Those who depart forever from the mystic body 
of Christ constitute tw^o classes: the one served 
the world, the other God. It is announced to the 
votary of the world that he must die, for his days* 
have come to an end, are about to pass away and 
be forgotten. The pangs, the convulsions of death, 
are about to shake the foundations of his material 
component, which will release its soul from its 
prison. The announcement produces sadness and 
darkness in his soul, in his household and among 
his friends. The gloomy thought, the awful cer- 
tainty, that he must leave behind him the wealth 
he accumulated, the world he so faithfully served, 
its smiles and sunshine, its busy throng and uproar 
of joy and its servile adulation, tortures his soul 
with the pangs of remorse, while, for the first time 
in years, it imparts to his conscience its normal 
vision. Oh! what a disgusting picture, v^hat a 
dark epitome of his misspent life this places before 
his intellect for its contemplation. He calls upon 
the v^orld, he so faithfully served, upon the wealth, 
he so dishonestly accumulated, for help in his 
death-struggle, but both hear him not, heed him 
not, succor him not, alleviate not his delirium. 



The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 2^/3 

He implores his wife, his children, his friends to 
help him, but they could not fend off death any- 
more than the world and his wealth could. He 
again looks into his conscience, and there sees a 
disgusting accumulation of sin which drives him 
into despair. He lurches, heavily, from the hideous 
sight, whines and cries, screams and roars, exhales 
a heavy breath and enters into the unexplored 
abyss of eternity! 

It is pleasing to note the departure of the 
second class out of this world, because they faith- 
fully served God during their lives. From the light 
of faith, they knew that grace is an inestimable 
gift, which, when used, made them the friends of 
God ; that sin unto death would make them His 
enemies, and hence, they utilized grace to escape 
the results of sin. To obtain grace they lived up 
to the law of God, believing that when it is 
violated, it removes grace from the soul, which is 
its life. Being in a state of grace they become 
wedded to God, who said : ^^ I will espouse thee to 
me in faith.''* 

Into the souls and hearts of this class earthly 
goods did not enter — that is, they did not worship 
them, but used them according to the dictates of 
religion and reason. As a consequence, their 
hearts were saturated with hopeful sweets. They 
sought but God in all their undertakings, and the 
finding of Him filled them with delight. ^' Delight 
in the Lord, and He will give thee the requests of 

* Osee, ii, 20. 



2'/4- ^^^^ Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

thy heart. "^ On this Saint Augustin says : ''The 
human heart is restless iintil it rests in God/'** 
And so it is, for nothing in the world can satisfy 
it, can buoy it up on the ocean of time but He. He 
alone can impart true peace to it and He does. 

The pains, miseries and crosses incident to 
this life, they endured with Christian patience 
and resignation, remembering that their divine 
Redeemer bore them, too, without a murmur, and 
therefore, that the servant is not above his Master. 
In their trials and crosses they had recourse to 
their crucified God, who invited them, saying: 
''Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, 
and I will refresh you.^'f 

It followed, therefore, that in the retrospect of 
their lives, they discerned iio cloud that could 
obscure the splendor and glory of their faith, on 
which they so often soared above the limits of 
material creation to contemplate the perfections 
of the Incarnate Word, the Creator of heaven and 
earth, who said: "Amen, amen, I say to you, if 
any man keep my word he shall not see death for- 
ever/ 'J They did keep His word, and hence, their 
joy and peace in their last moments — a peace and 
a joy the world knows nothing of. This is the 
peace, which, St. Paul says: "Surpasseth all under- 
standing. ''§ And so it does, because the human 
being in whose heart God abides by His grace, 
whether he be a priest or a layman, is so happy, 
so composed within himself, so united to his 

* Ps. xxxvi, 4. t Matt, xi, 28. % John viii, 51. 

** Conf. Ub. I. Cap. I. I Phil, iv, 7. 



The Visible a7id Invisible Worlds. 275 

Creator that neither the tongue of slander, 
nor insult from his own, nor from those of the 
world of man, can lessen the volume of his joy. 
If he be a minister of the gospel whose character 
is unjustly assailed, his joy is almost ecstatic from 
its intensity, because he becomes more and more 
conformed to his crucified Lord and Master. 
Speaking of this joy the Redeemer said: ^^Your 
joy no man shall take from you/'t 

The friends of the dying Christian send for the 
minister of religion, who, after having administered 
the Sacraments, says to him: '^My brother in 
Christ, the sands of your life are about run out, 
and hence, your moments on this earth are but 
few.'' At this the dying Christian becomes 
alarmed, although, time and again he ardently 
desired to die, in order that he might be united to 
his God. He says to the minister of religion: 
Father in God, in as much as I have been an 
unprofitable v^orkman in the vineyard of the Lord, 
I fear the result of my transition from time to 
eternity. Oh! I fear the just judgments of God 
from whose all-seeing-eye nothing can be con- 
cealed. '' ^^ How can you fear, '' replies the priest, 
^^when you have received the holy Viaticum who 
drives out fear? Your fear is a holy one, inspired 
by the grace of the Sacraments you have received, 
therefore, then, hope for a happy death and a 
favorable judgment. The God, v^hom you served 
and loved during your life you will soon see with 

t John xvi, 22. 



2^6 The Visible and Invisible Worlds. 

inviting smiles on His countenance, which will 
attract you to His bosom. Be hopeful: as the 
image of God in your soul is not darkened by sin, 
your judgment will be favorable. So soon as your 
soul scales the walls of your body, it will enter into 
the joy of our Lord. '^ The dying Christian being 
certain that his soul is not ^wrapped in the winding 
sheet of sin, hopes for a happy death. The 
language of faith, of hope and of charity whispers 
softly into his intellect that, death is not bitter to 
those who loved and served God during their term 
on this earth, and hence, that they need not fear 
death. 

While those thoughts were acting on his mind, 
and while prayer was being offered to God for his 
happy death, after casting his eyes towards heaven 
and then on the crucifix which he held in his hands, 
his soul left its earthly prison, sped through space, 
soared above and beyond the celestial spheres with 
more than lightening speed to God's tribunal, there, 
to be judged. If the soul of this Christian were 
free from venial sin and was not indebted to the 
justice of God, it was admitted into the society of 
the elect. If it v^ere indebted to His justice it was 
sentenced to purgatory, or a middle state of suffer- 
ing, there, to be cleansed, because nothing de£led 
can enter heaven, 

THE END. 




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